Bắc Triều Tiên triệt phá nhóm tin tặc cấp cao vì ăn cắp tiền từ Ngân hàng Trung ương và Ngân hàng Ngoại thương

The Huoxing Finance report, citing South Korean media Daily NK, states that on July 12, North Korean authorities arrested an elite hacking group suspected of infiltrating the internal networks of the Central Bank of North Korea and the Foreign Trade Bank to steal state trade funds and launder them through cryptocurrency. According to sources, the group’s leader is a veteran from the cyber warfare unit under the Reconnaissance General Bureau, who recruited brilliant IT graduates from Kim Chaek University of Technology and Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, using encrypted communications and wireless devices to carry out the attacks. They split the stolen funds into small amounts and transferred them to overseas crypto wallets, then converted them into cash through intermediaries, and finally exchanged them for U.S. dollars and other currencies via border regions. After North Korean officials detected anomalies in foreign currency payment approvals and records of overseas IP access, they launched an investigation and ultimately raided a safe house, arresting suspects in the act of laundering money and seizing equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The case has caused shock within North Korea’s elite and military circles, with senior officials from the Reconnaissance General Bureau and the science and education sector fearing potential repercussions. North Korea has long been accused of stealing billions of dollars in crypto assets through hacker groups such as Lazarus Group, but this incident is rare in revealing that its own financial system has become a target of internal attacks.