North Korea ‘hacking Bitcoin exchanges to steal money’ as Kim builds 'criminal enterprise'

Bithumb was hacked in February, although the breach was not noticed until June, and it was only made public in July.
At the time one customer claimed more than a million dollars’ worth of digital currency was stolen.
Claire Finkelstein, a national security expert and faculty director at the University of Pennsylvania’s Centre for Ethics and the Rule of Law told Buzzfeed News: “This is very consistent with what I would expect North Korea to be doing.”
Luke McNamara, a senior analyst with FireEye, also said: “I see there being two macro drivers of this threat activity.”

According to Mr McNamara, the first driver was the tightening of sanctions on North Korea's economy.
But he added: “You also have cryptocurrencies appreciating significantly since the beginning of the year. So you see cryptocurrency exchanges, particularly in South Korea, becoming a logical target.”
Ms Finkelstein warned that Bitcoin is a “high-risk currency” because it can be “easily manipulated” making it attractive to a “criminal” Kim Jong-un regime.
She continued: “And when you combine the fact that the North Korean government operates substantially like a criminal enterprise, it’s not at all surprising to learn that they’re very interested in cryptocurrencies.”