A South Korean crypto change operator has been sentenced to 4 years in jail after a court docket discovered them responsible of “leaking navy secrets and techniques” to North Korean hackers in change for Bitcoin (BTC) funds.
Chosun Ilbo reported {that a} 42-year-old particular person surnamed Lee was discovered responsible of violating the Nationwide Safety Act.
Lee was additionally suspended from working in comparable roles for an extra 4 years.
Crypto Change Operator: Jailed for 4 Years
The court docket heard that Lee was the “operator of a crypto change” once they “acquired 700 million received [$480,000]” value of BTC.
The cash, the court docket heard, got here “from an individual believed to be a North Korean hacker.”
The hacker satisfied Lee to “strategy an active-duty navy officer” to “leak navy secrets and techniques.”
Presiding Choose Choi Kyung-seo, at a department of the Seoul Central District Courtroom, stated that North Korea “has an anti-state nature.”
Choi added that Pyongyang “seeks to overthrow South Korea’s liberal democratic system.” The court docket defined:
“Lee was within the pursuit of extraordinarily private and financial features. However within the course of, Lee dedicated against the law that would have endangered the whole lot of South Korea.”
The court docket heard that Lee approached a navy captain surnamed Kim upon directions from a “North Korean hacker.”
In a stunning first, a court docket in South Korea was attacked early Sunday morning by protesters who opposed the court docket's ruling that granted an official warrant of arrest for President Yoon Suk Yeol over his failed martial regulation bid.https://t.co/wwSfleNqxO pic.twitter.com/cGgPfQWwCy
— The Korea Herald 코리아헤럴드 (@TheKoreaHerald) January 19, 2025
The hacker, codenamed “Boris,” contacted Lee by way of Telegram in July 2021. Boris was allegedly biding to “recruit active-duty officers who might present navy secrets and techniques.”
Prosecutors defined that Boris was “a member of” a hundred and tenth Analysis Middle, a Pyongyang-based, state-run hacking group.
The US Treasury positioned the group underneath sanctions in Might 2023. Seoul thinks the group was behind 2009 DDoS assaults on “key authorities companies” such because the Presidential workplaces and the Nationwide Meeting.
South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol attended a court docket listening to the place investigators had been searching for to increase his detention, making a shock look after his arrest earlier this week. https://t.co/N3eLJeI8ti
— Bloomberg Asia (@BloombergAsia) January 18, 2025
Hackers Paid in Bitcoin
The court docket heard that Lee gave Kim “a watch-shaped hidden digicam” to “movie varied confidential navy paperwork.”
Lee additionally “tried to” help North Korean hackers by smuggling hacking software program right into a South Korean navy base on a USB flash drive.
Nevertheless, prosecutors stated that regulation enforcement companies intercepted Lee earlier than they might hand the USB machine over to Kim.
The prosecution service stated it had traced the “supply of the Bitcoin” Lee acquired “as compensation for his actions” to assist it “conclude that Boris was a “North Korean agent” and a member of the a hundred and tenth Analysis Middle.
Final yr, a court docket jailed a gaggle of mortgage sharks who took navy passwords as collateral from troopers. The troopers wished to borrow cash to put money into crypto.
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