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North Korea's gross domestic product (GDP) has grown, in part because of the cybercrime gains of groups linked to the nation, which target business and financial firms.
June 11, 2026
Cyber-threat groups linked to North Korea and China continue to target financial firms and cryptocurrency assets in the Asia-Pacific region, but face increasing headwinds as national governments collaborate more closely with each other and private industry to seize cryptocurrency accounts linked to illegal activity.
In its recent 2026 Financial Services Threat Landscape Report, CrowdStrike noted that six of the nine major threat groups targeting financial services in Q1 2026 are linked to China and North Korea, while at least 78 organizations in the Asia-Pacific and Oceania regions were targeted by cybercriminals groups' data-leak-and-ransom operations. Cybercrime remains a massive problem in the Asia-Pacific region, because financial fraud and digital theft have become tremendous revenue streams for some nations. In 2025, for example, threat actors linked to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) stole at least $2.02 billion in cryptocurrency, accounting for a 6% to 7% share of the nation's $29 billion estimated GDP.
