North Korea steals £1.2billion as it pulls off biggest heist in history

The FBI confirmed the theft.

This comes after $1.5bn (£1.2bn) worth of cryptocurrency was stolen by hackers from the hermit nation, as claimed by the FBI.

The American intelligence bureau described the cyber attack as "TraderTraitor" on Wednesday and warned that virtual assets, stolen from ByBit, a Dubai-based British crypto trading platform, would eventually be turned into currency.

This latest in North Korea hacking success underlines the country's growing expertise in the domain.

The heist is now recorded as the most valuable in history, beating out the previous record held by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein who stole $1bn from Iraq's central bank before the 2003 war.

The FBI said in a statement: “TraderTraitor actors are proceeding rapidly and have converted some of the stolen assets to bitcoin and other virtual assets dispersed across thousands of addresses on multiple blockchains."

It expects the virtual assets will eventually be laundered and converted to government backed currency.

North Korea are serial hackers and seasoned thieves at this point, boasting a history of successful heists.

Last year hackers linked with the state stole over $1.3bn in cryptocurrency across 47 incidents, double the $660m that they had stolen in 2023.

It is claimed the division has stolen £6bn in virtual assets since 2017.

The nation's cybercrime unit is known as Lazarus Group and the proceeds of their work are thought to have funded the regime’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

Speaking to Sky News, Blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis said: "Hackers linked to North Korea have become notorious for their sophisticated and relentless tradecraft, often employing advanced malware, social engineering, and cryptocurrency theft to fund state-sponsored operations and circumvent international sanctions.”

Victim of the heist, ByBit, said an attacker had managed to gain control of an 'ether wallet' and transfer the holdings to an unknown address.

The British company has more than 60 million global users and offers access to different cryptocurrencies such as the most well known, bitcoin and ether.

In recent days the company has called on "the brightest minds" in cybersecurity to help it recover the $1.5bn lost.