The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS), the country’s spy agency, said that North Korean hackers were behind attacks on cryptocurrency exchanges this year in which about 7.6 billion won (US$6.98 million) worth of cryptocurrencies were stolen, a newspaper reported on Saturday.
The cyberattacks attributed to North Korean hackers also included in June leaking personal information from 36,000 accounts from the world’s busiest cryptocurrency exchange, Bitthumb, the Chosun Ilbo reported, citing the agency.
Attacks also included the theft of cryptocurrencies from accounts at exchanges Yapizon, now called Youbit, and Coinis in April and September, it said.
The 7.6 billion won of stolen cryptocurrencies are now worth about 90 billion won, the Chosun Ilbo said.
It cited the agency as saying that North Korean hackers had also demanded 6 billion won from Bitthumb in return for deleting the leaked personal information.
Another cyberattack in October on about 10 cryptocurrency exchanges by North Korean hackers, using e-mails containing malware, was thwarted by the Korea Internet Security Agency (KISA), the newspaper reported.
The NIS found that the malware used to hack the exchanges was made using the same method as malware used to hack Sony Pictures and Bangladesh Bank, Bangladesh’s central bank, in 2014 and last year respectively, the newspaper said, adding that it said e-mails used in the attacks used North Korean Internet addresses.
The NIS declined to comment.
Representatives for KISA, Bitthumb, Youbit and Coinis could not be reached for comment.
In related news, TD Ameritrade Holding Corp is to let its brokerage clients trade bitcoin futures starting tomorrow, a week after they debuted.
Customers are to gain access to contracts offered by Cboe Global Markets Inc; to trade, they must have a minimum account balance of US$25,000 and post margin — or collateral — that is 50 percent higher than Cboe requires, according to a statement e-mailed on Friday.
CME Group Inc is introducing its own bitcoin futures today, but TD Ameritrade customers will not immediately be able to trade those, the company said.
“Right now, we are taking the same approach we did with the Cboe product, to wait and see how it goes,” said JB Mackenzie, managing director for futures trading at TD Ameritrade. “We want to watch that market open and become an orderly marketplace, and see who the participants are in that marketplace,” Mackenzie said. “This is the same process we use with any new product. We want to see how the market reacts.”
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV on Friday announced an investment of NT$13.5 billion (US$414.62 million) over the next five years in Taiwan. The first multinational brewing company to operate in Taiwan, Heineken made the statement at a ceremony held at its brewery in Pingtung County. It also outlined its efforts to make the brewery “net zero” by 2030. Heineken has been in the Taiwanese market for 20 years, Heineken Taiwan managing director Jeff Wu (吳建甫) said. With strong support from local consumers, the Dutch brewery decided to transition from sales to manufacturing in the country, Wu said. Heineken assumed majority ownership and management rights
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI