Biggest year ever for crypto hacking – with North Korea the suspected culprit

Published

3 years ago

February 1, 2023

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2022 was the biggest year ever for cryptocurrency hacking, with more than £3.2bn stolen worldwide, according to new research.

October alone saw £629m taken – the most recorded in a single month.

It helped the overall year dwarf 2021’s previous high of £2.7bn, although the total number of hacks fell slightly.

The annual report by Chainalysis, a blockchain analysis firm which sees its data used by governments, banks, and businesses worldwide, says the activity was largely driven by hackers based in North Korea.

Kim Jong Un’s regime has repeatedly been accused of hacking cryptocurrencies to make money and evade international sanctions, even using stolen digital assets to fund its missile programme.

In 2022, Chainalysis says hackers associated with Pyongyang – notably criminal syndicate Lazarus Group – stole an estimated £1.4bn in cryptocurrency assets, breaking their own record.

Researchers have previously linked the group to the regime, though it is not known whether it is part of the government’s own operations or an external hire.

The amount of crypto thought to have been stolen hugely outweighs North Korea’s total annual exports, which latest figures from the Observatory of Economic Complexity put at £115m for 2020.

“It isn’t a stretch to say that cryptocurrency hacking is a sizable chunk of the nation’s economy,” said Chainalysis.

Where was the money stolen from?

The biggest victims of crypto hacks in 2022 were within decentralised finance protocols, which is essentially when investors cut out the middle man – like a bank or exchange – and transfer funds directly between digital wallets.

It’s becoming increasingly popular as it’s considered more transparent, which people are placing more value in following the collapse of major crypto platform FTX.

But according to Chainalysis, these so-called DeFi protocols made up 82.1% of crypto stolen by hackers in 2022, totalling more than £2.5bn.

David Schwed, of blockchain security company Halborn, said DeFi developers should not be afraid of looking to traditional centralised systems for inspiration in making themselves safer to use.

“You don’t need to move as slow as a bank, but you can borrow from what banks do,” he said.

UK’s ‘encouraging’ regulation plans

The report comes as the UK government unveils proposals to regulate crypto, as the market seeks to regain the confidence of investors spooked by an exceptionally volatile period.

Under the plans, which would bring the industry more in line with traditional financial systems, crypto platforms would become responsible for defining the demands that a currency must meet before being admitted for trading.

Exchanges will also be held accountable for safely facilitating transactions and keeping customer assets safe.

Jordan Wain, UK public policy lead at Chainalysis, told Sky News the regulation was welcome.

“It is encouraging to see the prominent thread of consumer protection running through these plans, which evidence a clear intent to tackle potentially abusive behaviours,” he said.

But he warned that tougher rules must not harm the industry’s “potential for innovation and growth”.

The proposals, which come less than a year after Rishi Sunak said he wanted the UK to become a “global crypto asset hub”, will go out for consultation before coming into force.

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What’s it like with the National Guard on the streets of DC?

Published

1 hour ago

August 22, 2025

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What's it like with the National Guard on the streets of DC?

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What’s it like on the streets of DC right now, as thousands of federal police patrol the streets?

Who is Steve Witkoff, the US envoy regularly meeting Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu to broker peace in Ukraine and Gaza?

And why is Californian Governor Gavin Newsom now tweeting like Donald Trump?

Martha Kelner and Mark Stone answer your questions.

If you’ve also got a question you’d like the Trump100 team to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.

You can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.

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It’s been a confusing week – and Trump’s been made to look weak

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1 hour ago

August 22, 2025

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It’s been a confusing week.

The Monday gathering of European leaders and Ukraine’s president with Donald Trump at the White House was highly significant.

Ukraine latest: Trump changes tack

The leaders went home buoyed by the knowledge that they’d finally convinced the American president not to abandon Europe. He had committed to provide American “security guarantees” to Ukraine.

The details were sketchy, and sketched out only a little more through the week (we got some noise about American air cover), but regardless, the presidential commitment represented a clear shift from months of isolationist rhetoric on Ukraine – “it’s Europe’s problem” and all the rest of it.

Yet it was always the case that, beyond that clear achievement for the Europeans, Russia would have a problem with it.

Trump’s envoy’s language last weekend – claiming that Putin had agreed to Europe providing “Article 5-like” guarantees for Ukraine, essentially providing it with a NATO-like collective security blanket – was baffling.

Russia gives two fingers to the president

And throughout this week, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has repeatedly and predictably undermined the whole thing, pointing out that Russia would never accept any peace plan that involved any European or NATO troops in Ukraine.

“The presence of foreign troops in Ukraine is completely unacceptable for Russia,” he said yesterday, echoing similar statements stretching back years.

Remember that NATO’s “eastern encroachment” was the justification for Russia’s “special military operation” – the invasion of Ukraine – in the first place. All this makes Trump look rather weak.

It’s two fingers to the president, though interestingly, the Russian language has been carefully calibrated not to poke Trump but to mock European leaders instead. That’s telling.

The bilateral meeting (between Putin and Zelenskyy) hailed by Trump on Monday as agreed and close – “within two weeks” – looks decidedly doubtful.

Maybe that’s why he went along with Putin’s suggestion that there be a bilateral, not including Trump, first.

It’s easier for the American president to blame someone else if it’s not his meeting, and it doesn’t happen.

NATO defence chiefs met on Wednesday to discuss the details of how the security guarantees – the ones Russia won’t accept – will work.

European sources at the meeting have told me it was all a great success. And to the comments by Lavrov, a source said: “It’s not up to Lavrov to decide on security guarantees. Not up to the one doing the threatening to decide how to deter that threat!”

The argument goes that it’s not realistic for Russia to say from which countries Ukraine can and cannot host troops.

Would Trump threaten force?

The problem is that if Europe and the White House want Russia to sign up to some sort of peace deal, then it would require agreement from all sides on the security arrangements.

The other way to get Russia to heel would be with an overwhelming threat of force. Something from Trump, like: “Vladimir – look what I did to Iran…”. But, of course, Iran isn’t a nuclear power.

Something else bothers me about all this. The core concept of a “security guarantee” is an ironclad obligation to defend Ukraine into the future.

Future guarantees would require treaties, not just a loose promise. I don’t see Trump’s America truly signing up to anything that obliges them to do anything.

A layered security guarantee which builds over time is an option, but from a Kremlin perspective, would probably only end up being a repeat of history and allow them another “justification” to push back.

Image and reality don’t seem to match

Among Trump’s stream of social media posts this week was an image of him waving his finger at Putin in Alaska. It was one of the few non-effusive images from the summit.

He posted it next to an image of former president Richard Nixon confronting Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev – an image that came to reflect American dominance over the Soviet Union.

That may be the image Trump wants to portray. But the events of the past week suggest image and reality just don’t match.

The past 24 hours in Ukraine have been among the most violent to date.

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At least 17 dead in Colombia after car bombing and helicopter attack

Published

1 hour ago

August 22, 2025

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At least 17 dead in Colombia after car bombing and helicopter attack

At least 17 people were killed after a car bombing and an attack on a police helicopter in Colombia, officials have said.

Authorities in the southwest city of Cali said a vehicle loaded with explosives detonated near a military aviation school, killing five people and injuring more than 30.

Authorities said at least 12 died in the attack on a helicopter transporting personnel to an area in Antioquia in northern Colombia, where they were to destroy coca leaf crops – the raw material used in the production of cocaine.

Antioquia governor Andres Julian said a drone attacked the helicopter as it flew over coca leaf crops.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro attributed both incidents to dissidents of the defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

He said the aircraft was targeted in retaliation for a cocaine seizure that allegedly belonged to the Gulf Clan.

Who are FARC, and are they still active?

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a Marxist guerrilla organisation, was the largest of the country’s rebel groups, and grew out of peasant self-defence forces.

It was formed in 1964 as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party, carrying out a series of attacks against political and economic targets.

In 2016, after more than 50 years of civil war, FARC rebels and the Colombian government signed a peace deal.

It officially ceased to be an armed group the following year – but some small dissident groups rejected the agreement and refused to disarm.

According to a report by Colombia’s Truth Commission in 2022, fighting between government forces, FARC, and the militant group National Liberation Army had killed around 450,000 people between 1985 and 2018.

Both FARC dissidents and members of the Gulf Clan operate in Antioquia.

It comes as a report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime found that coca leaf cultivation is on the rise in Colombia.

The area under cultivation reached a record 253,000 hectares in 2023, according to the UN’s latest available report.