North Korean hackers use cloud mining services to launder illegal cryptocurrencies

 

North Korean :

hackers use cloud mining services to launder illegal cryptocurrencies

Cloud-based infrastructure can save costs - but it can also be an attractive way for criminals.

A report released today said North Korean hackers may launder cryptocurrencies via cloud mining services.

Google-owned cybersecurity firm Mandiant said on Tuesday

1. A piracy group under Pyongyang's control
2. is known as the APT43 steals
3. and washes enough cryptocurrencies

To procure operational infrastructure in a manner consistent with the disturbing State ideology of North Korea. "

Juche is the state ideology of North Korea and the official ideology of the Korean Workers' Party, attributed to Kim Il Sung's founder.

Mandiant added that APT43

also known as Kimuski :

It most likely uses retail rental

and cloud mining services to launder stolen "clean" cryptocurrency.

Cloud mining services allow users to rent a computer system owned by someone else and use the hash power of this computer to mine cryptocurrencies.

This saves miners from buying and setting up their own local mining platforms.

The report said :

Even with the benefit of crypto infrastructure

 has targeted cryptocurrency

and cryptocurrency services, adding that it uses profits to finance its operations.

Mandiant said she's been watching APT43 since 2018. It is a "fairly sophisticated" group of hackers working to support the North Korean system by "collecting strategic information."

North Korean hackers have long worked in encryption

hacking protocols

stealing digital assets or using special applications to hide criminal paths.

Over the past five years, they have stolen at least $1.2 billion, some of it by impersonating venture capital firms and investors who fund cryptocurrency startups.

In a widely publicized move last year

the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on the application of Tornado Cash "currency mixer" because North Korean hackers used it to launder money.

State-sponsored Lazarus Group used Tornado Cash to wash over $96 million after it breached Harmony Bridge's blockchain protocol, blockchain analysts said.