North Korea’s cyberattacks and cryptocurrency heists have been increasing at an alarming pace. Look for these topics to fuel discussions at next month’s G7 summit in Alberta, Canada. Expect debates to be dominated by the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza. At the same time, North Korea’s bad behavior in cyberspace requires swift accountability and an international response that’s both unified and focused. The scale of the regime’s cyber operations is incredible and frightening. Their development of novel weapons delivery systems and their ability to continue to sidestep international sanctions have been funded by stolen cryptocurrency.

And there’s no indication that North Korea’s Lazarus Group and other hacking groups aren’t still stealing billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency. According to Chainalysis, North Korea stole over $1.3 billion across 47 crypto heists just in 2024.

In February, North Korea pulled off a breathtaking $1.4 billion hack on Bybit. Industry observers consider this theft to now be the largest ever recorded in the crypto industry. As the US Treasury notes, North Korea has relied on the proceeds from these high-profile hacks to fund their international sanctions evasion activities. This money has directly paid for their weapons development programs.

Most recently, in January, the US, Japan and South Korea released an alert. They shared that North Korea is sending technology workers abroad to penetrate cryptocurrency companies, representing an insider threat. Crypto exchange Kraken recently shared details on how it prevented a North Korean bad actor from penetrating its company. Their prompt response mitigated risk and stopped a looming security incident. Unfortunately, North Korea’s IT laborers – long an asset to the regime – pose an insider threat to private sector partners.

North Korea’s culture of cybercrime have become progressively more advanced crypto-related hacking lately. It’s the country’s ability to steal millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency that has enabled it to pursue its weapons programs in spite of international sanctions.