KIM Jong-un’s gang of cyber pirates are feared to be turning the Hermit Kingdom into the “world’s first hacktocracy” after plundering up to £6billion, experts warn.
The tubby tyrant’s shady Lazarus Group are the prime suspects in today’s £4.7billion Binance crypto heist dubbed “the largest bank heist in history.”
Speaking to Sam Homewood on From The Newsroom, The Sun’s new YouTube channel, Investigative Cyber Journalist Geoff White said the hacker squad are estimated to have stolen up to £6billion in total.
He added: “If you could fast forward a few years, you could get to the point where North Korea is the world’s first hacktocracy.”
Targeting Binance overnight, Lazarus’ affiliate TraderTraitor are believed to have stolen nearly £5billion in assets in just 20 minutes.
The heist had all the hallmarks of a North Korean job, White said.
North Korea has spent years fine tuning its cyber warfare and hacking capabilities to turn digital theft into a sophisticated state industry.
Kim is even said to be conscripting primary school prodigies as young as five and grooming them to become the world’s next superstar hackers.
White said: “Some people claim North Korea makes some five percent of its GDP out of hacking.
“We could get to the point where 100 percent of North Korea’s GDP comes from hacks. I think North Korea was going in that direction.”
Paralysed by international sanctions, the regime has to connive a way to fund Kim’s ambitious nuclear programme.
“Hackers go out and steal the money to keep North Korea afloat,” White explained.
“Billions of dollars go into the treasury, they will be spending it missiles, weapons, but also nuclear material.”
Despite a large percentage of the country’s population being shut off from the outside world entirely, the select few are handpicked to become global hackers excel.
White said: “North Koreans are extremely resourceful people. They’re very good at bootstrapping their way up.
“Fundamentally, to carry out a hack, what do you need? A laptop and Internet connection and some brains.
“The first two aren’t particularly expensive. And the third one, North Korea’s got that. They’re innovative, smart thinking people.”
Kim Jong Un’s crypto crooks plundered billions from trading platform Binance in just 20 minutes.
The company admitted that the total estimated impact is around $6.3billion (£4.7bn).
It is not the first time North Korean cyber pirates have raided billions in crypto currency.
The shady Lazarus group nicked a staggering $1.5billion – of which 300million was cashed in – to fund the tubby tyrant’s war chest.
White explained it was “the previous biggest theft of all time” until it was trumped by today’s brazen crypto grab.
“Fast forward a year. This is four times bigger than that. Absolutely astonishing” said White.
He added: “If you fast forward within a few years, maybe five, maybe 10 years, you could get to the point where North Korea is the world’s first hackocracy.
“A government entirely supported by the proceeds of hacking.”
Kim Jong Un is also selling North Koreans to Russian businesses to fund his ballistic missile programme, a new report has found.
The tyrant has hatched a sick plot with Vladimir Putin to bypass international sanctions and bolster each other’s war chests.
The twisted scheme gives Putin a brutally controlled workforce while Kim Jong-Un steals their wages to fuel his own military agression.
The shocking plot was uncovered by the Global Rights Compliance (GRC).
GRC Legal Advisor Elise Lauriot Prevost, who worked on the investigation, told The Sun: “Cooperation between the DPRK and Russia is only getting stronger.
“The DPRK is getting hard cash and fuel while Russia is getting workers to supplement its manpower shortages.”