The sanctions vigilante of the United States Department of the United States added the national song of Norte Kum Hyok to his list of “specially designated nationals”, claiming that he is “a malicious cyber actor” linked to a North Korean piracy group.
The foreign asset control office moved to block the song of the global financial system on Tuesday, arguing that he worked to place other North Korean officials in several companies such as IT workers. These IT workers would then send funds to North Korea and, in some cases, would find ways to exploit the companies for which they worked to generate additional income.
The cryptographic industry has been affected by this type of schemes, with numerous important robberies as a result of the efforts of North Korean computer pirates.
“The RPDC generates significant income through the deployment of IT workers who obtain fraudulently employment with companies around the world, even in the technology and virtual currency industries,” said the statement on Tuesday.
At the end of last month, Cryptographic researcher and analyst Zachxbt said “multiple projects … were exploited”, probably due to the hiring of North Korea’s workers as developers.
Although the launch of Tuesday’s department of Tuesday mentioned the past hacks of cryptographic projects, it did not appoint any type of encryption wallets in its sanctions list. Modió that the department had previously sanctioned the Lazarus group, which researchers have linked several cryptographic hacks in recent years, including the theft of $ 625 million Axie Infinity and the massive Hack of $ 1.5 billion of this year of Bybit.
“IT workers of the RPDC often assume projects that involve virtual currency, and use virtual currency exchanges and commercial platforms to manage funds that receive for contract work, as well as to wash and send these funds to the RPDC,” the United States Treasury Department said Tuesday.
‘Illicit Income’ Generation
ARI RedBord, global chief of government policies and issues in TRM Labs, said that integrated IT workers have served as generation ramps for both illicit income and for the eventual intrusion activity, particularly in the cryptographic space. “
“A remarkable aspect of the current designation is the explicit reference to IT workers in North Korea who operate outside China and Russia,” he said, added that this shows a “growing alignment” between the RPDC and certain jurisdictions.
“This action also fits into a broader pattern. In the last month, the treasure has taken multiple steps aimed at the use of IT workers by North Korea to channel illegal income to Pyongyang often washed through cryptography exchanges and anonymized platforms,” he said.
“The song represents the operational layer behind those schemes: not the hacker, but the enabling
Read more: how the cryptographic industry infiltrates in North
