The UN accused North Korea of ​​financing its weapons program by cyberattacks

Thanks to sophisticated computer attacks, the North Korean regime has raised up to 2 billion dollars finance its weapons program, according to a UN report.

The report notes that North Korea "he used cyberspace to launch more and more sophisticated attacks in order to steal funds from financial institutions and exchange crypto-currencies to generate income. "

The investigation concluded that North Korean cyber agents, who work mainly under the direction of the Office of General Recognition, one of the country's leading intelligence services, have collected about $ 2 billion to fund destruction programs. weapons. Pyongyang mbadive.

In their report, the researchers identified "at least 35 cases reported officials from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea who attacked financial institutions, cryptocurrency trades and mining activities to obtain foreign currency "in 17 countries.

Crypto-currencies, ideal to avoid the embargo

Focusing on cryptocurrency trading is revealing. This allowed Pyongyang "generate more difficult revenue to locate"and avoid" oversight and regulation by governments, "badyzes the independent experts of the UN.

Nicolas Arpagian, author of the book Cybersecurity, confirmed at RFI that "cryptocurrencies, which have the merit of being essentially anonymous, constitute a source of revenue for embargoed states, which implies the deprivation of foreign currency, the limitation of the ability to sign contracts with international companies and the ability to pay in internationally recognized currencies ".

It is therefore not surprising that cryptocurrency piracy is part of North Korea's "tools to circumvent or limit the effects of the embargo". It is also not the first time that Pyongyang is suspected of having "access to this type of technology".