Asia | Hermit hackers

Why are North Korean hackers such good crypto-thieves?

They recently pulled off the world’s biggest cyber-heist

Illustration of a group of shadowy people working on glowing screens while the shadow of Kim Jong Un looms over them
Illustration: Daniel Stolle
|SEOUL

FEBRUARY 21st began as a typical day, recalled Ben Zhou, the boss of ByBit, a Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange. Before going to bed, he approved a fund transfer between the firm’s accounts, a “typical manoeuvre” performed while servicing more than 60m users around the world. Half an hour later he got a phone call. “Ben, there’s an issue,” his chief financial officer said, voice shaking. “We might be hacked…all of the Ethereum is gone.”

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