[ad_1]
North Korea is stepping up mining for privacy as the regime continues its efforts to circumvent sanctions.
US cybersecurity firm Recorded Future said on Sunday in a report that network traffic for monero mining (XMR) that had originated from North Korean IP ranges has increased “at least tenfold” since May 2019, making it the asset. most popular digital to mine and surpassing regime mining for bitcoin (BTC).
The report attributes the changing preference for monero to the fact that mining of XMR can take place on non-specialized machines, such as conventional computers, which reduces operating costs and eliminates the need to import mining rigs from overseas.
Monero’s transactions are also anonymous, making it easier for North Korea to “evade attempts to trace funds” and circumvent sanctions imposed on the regime by the United States and the UN Security Council, according to Recorded Future.
“We believe cryptocurrencies are a valuable tool for North Korea as an independent and poorly regulated source of revenue generation, but also as a means of moving and using illegally obtained funds,” the report reads.
The Recorded Future report says the regime’s mining activity was clouded with proxy IP addresses, meaning analysts couldn’t determine the share of the XMR hashrate North Korea was responsible for.
Although a United Nations study previously suggested that a branch of the North Korean military was responsible for the regime’s cryptographic activity, Record Future’s study was unable to say which entity was responsible based on the data collected.
Monero has been used by North Korea since at least August 2017, when agents involved in the WannaCry attack exchanged extorted bitcoins for monero. According to the report, the regime’s bitcoin mining activity has remained relatively static over the past two years.
Monero is the cryptocurrency of choice for many illicit and criminal organizations. A Japanese cybersecurity firm reported this week that the mysterious hacker group Outlaw has developed a range of sophisticated crypto mining robots that can infiltrate corporate computer systems to covertly mine monero.
