ROK_2022_Final.pdf (2 MB)

CNAS frames North Korea as the leading state-sponsored cyber threat to the global financial sector, citing more than $1 billion in stolen digital assets from 2021 through June 2022. The report says Pyongyang's cybercrime shifted after 2015 toward cryptocurrency, blockchain, and decentralized finance platforms while continuing to target U.S. and South Korean financial, social, and cyber infrastructure. It recommends that the U.S.-ROK cyber working group set a research agenda on exploitable weaknesses in state-sponsored cybercrime, improve agency-to-agency coordination, share guidance on social engineering risks, and bring outside researchers into the effort.