U.S. Treasury sanctions North Korean hacking groups, citing crypto exchange hacks

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions targeting three North Korean state-sponsored malicious cyber groups on Friday: Lazarus Group, Bluenoroff, and Andariel. Importantly, the announcement explicitly cites these organizations' involvement in the thefts of digital assets, noting their "target[ing] Virtual Asset Providers and cryptocurrency exchanges to possibly assist in obfuscating revenue streams and cyber-enabled thefts that also potentially fund North Korea’s WMD and ballistic missile programs." The report continues:

"According to industry and press reporting, these three state-sponsored hacking groups likely stole around $571 million in cryptocurrency alone, from five exchanges in Asia between January 2017 and September 2018."