A UN agency coordinator sought more focus on cybercrime in North Korea
The coordinator of the UN body that oversees the enforcement of sanctions on North Korea said on Wednesday there is a need to increase focus on cybercrime, which has become a cornerstone of Pyongyang’s financial capabilities. support its banned weapons programs.
Eric Penton-Voak, of the United Nations Security Council’s Expert Panel on North Korea, noted that despite the broadest sanctions regime ever imposed by the United Nations on a country, North Korea has accelerated markedly missile testing, especially in the past six months.
“It may not be a coincidence that the words cyber and crypto don’t actually appear in UN sanctions resolutions,” he said during a panel discussion hosted by Washington’s Center for a New American Security. organization.
Penton-Voak said he believes cyber activity has become “absolutely fundamental” to North Korea’s ability to evade UN sanctions to raise money for its nuclear and missile programs. However, the expert panel’s six-monthly reports do not reflect this, as has been done by Member States. reluctant to report violations.
“We rely on UN member states to notify us of breaches to investigate. But many, many member states are quite cautious about their cyber capabilities,” he said.
“For their part, victims are often very reluctant to discuss how attacks have happened and how widespread they have been… I hope and expect that our reports go forward in the future. future will better reflect the central importance of cyber-enabled financial crime to (North Korea).”
Penton-Voak said North Korean hackers are at the cutting edge of cyber technology, as demonstrated by the recent hack of the video game Axie Infinity.
Last week, the United States linked North Korean hackers to a crypto theft of hundreds of millions of dollars tied to Axie Infinity.
Ronin, a blockchain network that allows users to transfer cryptocurrencies in and out of games, said that nearly $615 million worth of digital currency was stolen on March 23.
An official Ronin blog post said the FBI attributed the hack to the Lazarus Group, a hacking entity that Washington says is controlled by the General Department of Reconnaissance, North Korea’s main intelligence agency.
It has been accused of being involved in the “WannaCry” ransomware attacks, which attacked international banks and customer accounts, as well as the 2014 cyberattacks on Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Washington has pushed for the United Nations Security Council to blacklist Lazarus and freeze its assets, according to a draft resolution reviewed by Reuters last week.
