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North Korean hackers stole a record $1.7B of crypto last year

economist.com

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Re: North Korean hackers stole a record $1.7B of crypto last year

#101

Post by wpietri »

bsamuels wrote: post #75
axlee wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If 99% of BTC mixers' volume is helping laundering international drug trade money, arms or human trafficking, it's not exactly hard to demonize mixing itself. I have no data to base this on, but I assume that privacy absolutists are a tiny, tiny drop in the pool of blood and crime.

do you feel the same way about Tor? If 99% of Tor's volume is helping laundering international drug trade money, distributing CSAM, etc, should it be demonized as well?

> If 99% of Tor's volume is helping laundering international drug trade money, distributing CSAM, etc, should it be demonized as well?

Easy answer: Yes! Although I think it would be hard to call it demonizing when something is already 99% demons.

Re: North Korean hackers stole a record $1.7B of crypto last year

#102

Post by wpietri »

oneoff786 wrote: post #21
monero-xmr wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The crypto currency world is hyper focused on stopping this, considering it is one of the main avenues that statists attack crypto with now that the environmental nag is gone since the switch to Proof of Stake. I would say, conservatively, the traditional banking and real estate markets are 10,000x worse than crypto markets, but are un-policed because it's hidden, unlike the public blockchain networks. The few scams…

I like the use of “statists” to negatively refer to people who use facts to support their arguments.

Those wild and crazy people in favor of any form of government!

Re: North Korean hackers stole a record $1.7B of crypto last year

#103

Post by droptablemain »

Salgat wrote: post #96
droptablemain wrote: post #93

You know, it's possible they wouldn't have to resort to such things if we weren't intent on sanctioning them to death.

What makes you think they'd behave any differently?

Are you implying the Korean people are inherently "evil" or something?

Re: North Korean hackers stole a record $1.7B of crypto last year

#105

Post by smcl »

Salgat wrote: post #100
smcl wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What do you mean by supposedly? The DPRK is often portrayed as incompetent, helpless state purely able to eke out an existence by the grace of China (to whom it is useful only as a sort of attack dog cum buffer state). So the fact that they've managed to run an operation that can steal this much crypto may come as a surprise to many. I don't imagine their intelligence agencies are quite on the same level of electro…

It's not really surprising. NK is able to outsource their education to Chinese universities, and with a division that can yield $1.7B in revenue, it's not surprising they invest in this skillset, even if the country at large is destitute and backwards.

It is a surprise for those who take the common portrayal of the country at face value. We know it's not quite the "hermit kingdom" it's often described as, but most do not.

Re: North Korean hackers stole a record $1.7B of crypto last year

#106

Post by nibbleshifter »

butterfi wrote: post #61
acidtakes1 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why technology that provides a modicum of privacy must be demonized. It must be for money laundering and criminals. It can't have a legitimate use case. Is it used for nefarious activities? Of course, but not exclusively so.

Can you provide a legitimate use case for mixers? (I'm not trolling, I'm genuinely curious)

Using Tornado was pretty common among well known/higher profile people in the space to avoid causing inadvertent market effects or leak info about upcoming projects.

Basically if you were high profile enough, people would watch your wallets to see what you were investing in/transacting with, and use that as market intelligence.

As far back as 2016 or so I recall someone specifically offering their blockchain analysis platform as a way to do this.

So you would use tornado to make the money you planned to invest/use appear "somewhere else" disconnected, to maintain privacy/security of a project.

Tornado and mixers and such become necessary specifically because all transactions are public - unlike in tradfi where transactions are opaque except to parties and intermediaries.

Similarly to how investors in tradfi tend to keep their investment strategies secret where possible.

Re: North Korean hackers stole a record $1.7B of crypto last year

#107

Post by nanidin »

Phlarp wrote: post #77
exo762 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scenario one. Individual (while working in a startup) is receiving some tokens as a compensation. Time passes. Their remuneration being on-chain and visible is a problem when negotiating salary in the next job. Scenario two. I want to have on-chain identity (e.g. exo762.eth domain name). To register it I need to have some ETH (gas, registration fee). If I sent this ETH directly from my "money" account, I will forever…

How are these scenarios "use cases" for a mixer and not critical flaws in the underlying system? We're in a thread about a rogue state using the tech to steal money to fund their operations (Chemical attacks in airports, nuclear warheads, intercontinental ballistic missiles, etc.) How many nuclear detonations would you consider acceptable in exchange for the cryptobros to have their toys?

Side note, I find it interesting that "bros" is now a pejorative - cryptobros, techbros. Are there other instances?

We've come a long way from Mario Bros!

Re: North Korean hackers stole a record $1.7B of crypto last year

#108

Post by eterps »

wpietri wrote: post #101
bsamuels wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

do you feel the same way about Tor? If 99% of Tor's volume is helping laundering international drug trade money, distributing CSAM, etc, should it be demonized as well?

> If 99% of Tor's volume is helping laundering international drug trade money, distributing CSAM, etc, should it be demonized as well? Easy answer: Yes! Although I think it would be hard to call it demonizing when something is already 99% demons.

Should any tech that conceals IP addresses be demonized? Or just Tor?

Re: North Korean hackers stole a record $1.7B of crypto last year

#109

Post by paulpauper »

hnthrowaway0315 wrote: post #91

How do they use the $$? I guess it's not easy to convert to USD so the only option is on black market? Some vendors say chip vendors or weapon vendors may be willing to take crypto?

Also, as prices falls, presumably these figures will need to be downgraded? I don't think they are cashing out this crypto, but probably most of it stays dormant in wallets. Crypto falls so fast, likely this figure will be downgraded by a magnitude of 5 or more by next year . Putting an exact figure is hard.

Re: North Korean hackers stole a record $1.7B of crypto last year

#110

Post by zwkrt »

ourmandave wrote: post #94
nhooyr wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Their normal plan is to steal keys by compromising users and computers. This is in contrast to the normal "hack" that works by finding and exploiting bugs in code. That's the primary way hacks are conducted by most hackers. Hackers are primarily social engineers, not technical. Technical hackers are extremely rare regardless of nationality.

The NSA called, they want their 0-day exploits back.

It's not that they don't exist, but the easiest way to gain access to a computer system is always going to be to ask for the password.

https://xkcd.com/538/

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