North Korea Hacked by Its Own Cyberwarfare Unit

North Korea's cyberwarfare unit has been rocked by an unprecedented scandal after state-trained hackers were arrested for stealing and laundering funds from the country's most sensitive financial institutions. The group, comprised of veteran hackers discharged from a cyber operations unit under the General Reconnaissance Bureau, infiltrated the Chosun Central Bank and Foreign Trade Bank, converting state funds into cryptocurrencies to launder them through brokers in China.

The ringleaders recruited young prodigies from Kim Chaek University of Technology and Pyongyang University of Science and Technology to help with the operation. They used specialized wireless equipment of Chinese manufacture and encrypted messaging applications to evade detection.

The internal investigation was triggered when regime officials detected small discrepancies in external payment records and suspicious accesses from foreign IPs. The National Intelligence Agency traced the encrypted transaction traffic to a safe house in Pyongyang, where agents raided the location and arrested the hackers involved while they were operating in front of their computers.