Chainalysis executive Erin Plante said that the attack vectors used by North Korean hackers in 2023 were “age-old” tactics that could have been prevented.
Hacking groups linked to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) stole less crypto despite ramping up their efforts and diversifying their targets in 2023, according to the latest report released by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.
In 2022, crypto lost from North Korea-linked exploits reached $1.7 billion through 15 hacking incidents. In 2023, Chainalysis estimated that the hacking groups stole about $1 billion worth of crypto from 20 hacks. This shows that despite having more exploits, the hackers could not surpass the value of their illicit gains in the previous year despite having more exploits.
Erin Plante, the vice president of investigations at Chainalysis, expects that hacks linked to North Korea will continue to become more sophisticated and diverse. With their ill-gotten gains from decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols becoming less due to security improvements, Plante explained that North Korean hackers diversified and targeted centralized services and wallets.
