How North Korea Makes Money

how does a bitterly impoverished famine-ravaged  country with little in the way of discernible   industry afford a nuclear weapons program  how do its elites live in the lap of luxury   despite ruthless international sanctions the short  answer is weaponized nerds here's the long answer   north korea is a pariah state the most isolated  nation on earth its leader's stubborn insistence   on self-reliance means ordinary people can't  easily import useful goods from the outside world   like fuel or fertilizer the country does export  negligible quantities of coal and shellfish   but overall it's fair to say the  broad economic tax base underpinning   all other modern nation states simply doesn't  exist here so how does north korea make money   historically it's turned to crime in the 80s  and 90s this nefariousness typically extended   only as far as small-time organized crime hustles  think smuggling cigarettes amphetamines all the   body parts of endangered species one of the more  lucrative old-school scams however was a wildly   successful state-sponsored trade in counterfeit  hundred dollar bills this counterfeit money   wheeze which ran for decades and netted the north  korean regime around 15 million bucks a year was   mercilessly stamped out by the us government in  the early years of the 21st century which prompted   the outlaw state to get creative how north korea  then turned to hacking remember the sony pictures   hack back in 2014 sony pictures released a seth  rogen movie called the interview which brutally   mocked the north korean regime and especially  its dear leader kim jong-un outraged pyongyang   condemned sony's comedy flick as a wanton act  of terror and responded by hacking the hollywood   giant's computer systems this major hack led to  the embarrassing release of sensitive internal   emails including one calling angelina jolie a  minimally talented spoiled brat and the script   for a forthcoming bond movie that hack however  was merely the shiny showbiz tip of a colossal   cybercrime iceberg the real work being carried out  by north korean hackers was and is targeting banks   according to a 2019 united nations report north  korean hackers have so far raised some two billion   dollars in just a decade of state-sponsored  online malfeasance that was two years ago   by the way so the real figure is almost certainly  more than two billion exploiting weaknesses in the   banking systems of nations like the philippines  and bangladesh but also more advanced economies   like japan isn't straightforward but north korea  has a long-term strategy the regime seeks out and   recruits the brightest young children from its  otherwise threadbare schooling system these math   inclined wiz kids are funneled into specialised  high schools hot-housed as if they were young   olympians and later enrolled at well-funded  pyongyang institutions like the kimchi university   of technology or kim il-sung university throughout  they're encouraged to code and hone their online   skills remember fewer than one percent of  ordinary north koreans have internet access   so if your computer inclined hacking is a  great way out of the slums upon graduation   these elite korean coders described as warriors  by kim jong-un go to work for the government here   they're assigned to cyber espionage units with  shady names like enemy collapse sabotage bureau   or the still more oblique unit 180 whose mission  is apparently conducting cyber operations to steal   foreign money from outside north korea defectors  rarely try to leave the hermit kingdom because   the regime would visit swift and brutal revenge on  their family and friends one brave whistleblower   told the new yorker that north korea's elite  hackers are rewarded for their efforts with   cars or comfortable houses and a special place  in the affections of the tyrannical kim jong-un   every so often like the sony episode these hackers  work makes global headlines in 2017 the so-called   wannacry 2.0 hack disabled computer systems  at boeing the german federal railway network   and britain's national health service mostly  however north korea is responsible for under   the radar ransomware attacks the kind smaller  financial institutions have increasingly come   to see as an unfortunate cost of doing business  these often come via malware attacks using the   internationally trusted swift banking system  swift aka the society for worldwide interbank   financial telecommunications makes fund  requests look legitimate for instance on   one february day in 2016 the us federal reserve  was tricked into paying out 101 million dollars   in fraudulent swift transactions all instigated  by north korean scammers cryptocurrency exchanges   are by no means immune during one 2018 heist an  unnamed hong kong exchange had its clients hot   wallets ransacked to the tune of 10 800 bitcoin  in 2018 that hall was worth 94 million dollars   today it's more than half a billion dollars can  they be stopped much of the hacking analysts agree   is carried out by north korean coders situated  outside of the country's borders vpns of course   complicate this picture but it is known that young  korean coders are encouraged to spend time abroad   at least elsewhere in southeast asia learning  first hand how other countries systems and   fail-safes operate neighboring china and also  russia are broadly sympathetic to the pariah state   which shields its elites from the most brutal  sanctions telling lee it appears no chinese   or russian banks have yet been targeted by the  regime what do you think is society now locked in   a bitter arms race between western cyber security  experts and weaponized north korean nerds let us   know in the comments and don't forget to subscribe  for more reassuringly secure tech content

Channel: Tech Vision

Views: 54,326

Keywords: north korea, how north korea makes money, kim jung un, economy, finance, technology

Id: wYqWts1uepc

Length: 5min 19sec (319 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 10 2021