Crypto-currencies may have been targeted in order to evade global financial sanctions on the North.
South Korea’s spy agency believes that North Korea is behind hacking attacks on a crypto-currency exchange in the South, sources say.
At least $7m (£5.25m) in digital money was stolen in the hacks – although the money is now said to have ballooned in value to $82.7m.
The thieves also stole the personal information of some 30,000 people.
They were trading the virtual currencies Bitcoin and Ethereum on the Bithumb crypto-currency exchange.
Based on recent trading volumes, Bithumb is South Korea’s biggest and one of the five largest in the world.
Analysts say North Korean hackers may have targeted crypto-currencies in order to evade the financial sanctions imposed as punishment for the North’s development of nuclear weapons.
This attack is said to date back to February, when a Bithumb employee’s home PC was targeted – though it was only discovered in June.
