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
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