{"id":123610,"date":"2025-12-29T19:51:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T19:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/?p=123610"},"modified":"2025-12-29T19:51:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T19:51:00","slug":"former-exchange-employee-sentenced-to-4-years-for-selling-military-secrets-to-north-korea-for-bitcoin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/?p=123610","title":{"rendered":"Former Exchange Employee Sentenced to 4 Years for Selling Military Secrets to North Korea for Bitcoin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

Former Exchange Employee Sentenced to 4 Years for Selling Military Secrets to North Korea for Bitcoin<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

A South Korean crypto exchange employee was sentenced to four years in prison for attempting to recruit a military officer to sell classified secrets to North Korea in exchange for Bitcoin, the Supreme Court ruled on December 28.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ruling also imposes a four-year ban on the employee from financial sector activities.<\/p>\n

Court documents revealed that North Korean hackers paid the exchange staffer $487,000 in Bitcoin to recruit a 30-year-old army captain, who received $33,500 in Bitcoin in return, according<\/a> to the South Korean media outlet Dailian.<\/p>\n

The staffer approached the officer through a Telegram chat, offering cryptocurrency for access to sensitive military data.<\/p>\n

The staffer sent a watch-shaped hidden camera and a USB \u201chacking device\u201d to the captain under hacker instructions. These devices were intended to capture and transmit information from the Korean Joint Command and Control System, a platform used to share intelligence between the U.S. and South Korea.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Military police intercepted the devices before any breach occurred.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe defendant must have been aware that he was attempting to uncover military secrets for a country hostile to South Korea,\u201d the judge said. \u201cThis crime could have endangered the entire country and was committed for personal financial gain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The captain, surnamed Kim, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $35,000 for violating the Military Secrets Protection Act.\u00a0<\/p>\n

DLNews reporting<\/a> helped with this article.<\/p>\n

North Korea\u2019s crypto exploits\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The U.S. Treasury Department on November 4, sanctioned<\/a> eight individuals and two entities linked to North Korea\u2019s cybercrime operations, targeting the flow of cryptocurrency stolen by DPRK hackers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Over the past three years, North Korea-affiliated cybercriminals have stolen more than $3 billion, primarily in digital assets, using malware, ransomware, and social engineering to attack banks, exchanges, and other platforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Treasury said the funds help finance Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear weapons and missile programs.<\/p>\n

Among those sanctioned were bankers Jang Kuk Chol and Ho Jong Son, who managed over $5.3 million in cryptocurrency tied to ransomware attacks and DPRK IT workers abroad. Korea Mangyongdae Computer Technology Corp., which runs overseas IT delegations, and its president U Yong Su, were also targeted, alongside Ryujong Credit Bank in Pyongyang and five DPRK banking representatives in China and Russia for laundering millions in global currencies.<\/p>\n

In September 2024, the FBI issued<\/a> a warning that North Korean hackers were targeting U.S. cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in an attempt to steal digital assets.<\/p>\n

According to the agency, the attackers are employing sophisticated social engineering techniques to infiltrate companies linked to these financial products.<\/p>\n

This post Former Exchange Employee Sentenced to 4 Years for Selling Military Secrets to North Korea for Bitcoin<\/a> first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine<\/a> and is written by Micah Zimmerman<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin Magazine Former Exchange Employee Sentenced to 4 Years for Selling Military Secrets to North Korea for Bitcoin A South Korean crypto exchange employee was sentenced to four years in prison for attempting to recruit a military officer to sell classified secrets to North Korea in exchange for Bitcoin, the Supreme Court ruled on December […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":123611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123610"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=123610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/123611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=123610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=123610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=123610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}