It's been reported recently that North Korean hackers have managed to cash out around $300 million worth of $1.5 billion they hacked from Bybit...
I got to wondering just what proportion of the country's GDP comes from Cybercrime....
The Extent of North Korea's Cyber Activities
Infosecurity Magazine reveals that cybercrime contributes up to 50% of North Korea's foreign income (Infosecurity Magazine).
According to This Guardian article North Korea raked in $3 bn from Cyber Crime between 2017 and 2023, so around $500 million a year.
Wikepedia estimates North Korea's GDP to be around $40 billion, so if we take that $500 million figure that means cybercrime is worth > 2% of GDP overall.
But maybe it's more significant...?
Those figures (which we need to be cautious of, lots of estimates going on!) don't paint the whole picture.
Much of North Korea's GDP comes from agriculture and industry, which are going to be consumed domestically, while the proceeds of cybercrime provide dollars, which can be spent on foreign goods and services which the country can't generate itself.
Apparently most of that cybercrime money goes on North Korea's nuclear arsenal....
And that's well worth it...
If you consider the fact that North Korea, unlike Ukraine, which doesn't have a nuclear deterrent, hasn't been invaded despite being extremely backwards in many other respects!