The U.S. Department of Justice announced a two-pronged crackdown on North Korean hackers. In response to the October 29 attack on Binance, the Department of Justice has obtained a court order to freeze more than $1.2 billion in stolen cryptocurrency assets. “TraderTraitor,” a hacker group linked to the North Korean military, has stolen a total of $6.3 billion; U.S. authorities, in collaboration with private companies, have frozen more than $2.7 billion in assets. The Department of Justice continues to track the flow of funds, striving to freeze and recover additional funds. M. Scott Proctor, Assistant Deputy Attorney General for National Security at the Department of Justice, stated that the United States will use every means at its disposal to freeze North Korea’s illicit proceeds.
Federal agents also dismantled the cloud infrastructure used by the North Korean hacking operation “FaceStealer.” This scam lures victims into installing malware by creating fake Zoom or Microsoft Teams video conferences; hackers impersonate acquaintances and use secretly recorded webcam footage or AI-generated deepfake videos. The FBI seized more than 900 webcam recordings stolen by the hackers. Over the past 18 months, FaceStealer has stolen more than $400 million in cryptocurrency, targeting developers who maintain open-source software.
Cover image: CryptoWallet.com Images / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
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