North Korean hackers intensify their efforts against blockchain and Web3 developers, using nearly 200 malicious npm packages in the ongoing Contagious Interview hacking campaign.
North Korean hackers have now plundered $2 billion this year and an overall total of $6 billion in stolen crypto. The state-sponsored hacking teams have demonstrated creative means of penetrating crypto platforms and are responsible for at least 30 incidents in 2025, including a $1.46 billion theft from Bybit.
North Korean hackers had their secrets exposed online after altruistic hacktivists breached a computer belonging to a member of the state-backed Kimsuky group.
The total take for the Lazarus hackers was over 400,000 ETH and stETH valued at about $1.5 billion in total. The public report of the crypto theft triggered a wave of about 580,000 withdrawal requests. Bybit says that it has weathered that bank run.
North Korean hackers are using ClickFix social engineering tactics to compromise devices and perform data exfiltration in a highly focused cyber espionage campaign.
Law enforcement and cyber authorities in the United States and Japan have attributed North Korean hackers to the DMM Bitcoin crypto heist worth about $308 million.
North Korea's new record for stolen crypto, $1.34 billion, represents 61% of the total of about $2.2. billion stolen in 2024. Skilled state-backed North Korean hackers are almost single-handedly keeping numbers above the $1 billion level globally.
The FBI has warned crypto companies of sophisticated social engineering attacks by North Korean hackers targeting employees to install malware leading to crypto theft.
South Korea's National Police Agency has revealed that state-sponsored North Korean hackers have been waging an all-out espionage campaign against the country's defense companies since at least 2022, and have lurked in the networks of some targets for over a year.
Chainalysis finds that state-backed North Korean hackers are more reliant than ever on illicit crypto exchanges in Russia to move money. North Korean hackers are thought to have stolen $3.54 billion in cryptocurrency over the last seven and a half years.
