North Korea has long been accused of being a major state sponsor of cybercrime. The isolated authoritarian regime uses hacking groups, including the infamous Lazarus Group, to target both large crypto companies and wealthy individuals, with the proceeds being used to prop up a country that, by any metric, is an economic basket case: the United Nations estimates such activity now accounts for 13% of North Korea's GDP.
An increased focus on targeting individuals with large crypto wealth has seen North Korean hackers make off with more than $2 billion so far this year alone, according to investigators at Elliptic, a research firm dedicated to identifying and stopping cybercrime (thanks, BBC). Elliptic says such individuals are "increasingly attractive targets" because they often lack "the security measures employed by businesses." Some individuals are targeted due to an association with businesses holding large amounts of cryptoassets.
