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North Korean hackers stole a record $1.7bn of crypto last year
朝鮮黑客去年竊取了17億美元加密貨幣，創下紀錄
Few forms of celebration are as close to literally burning money as fireworks and missile tests.
很少有什么慶祝形式能像煙花和導彈試驗那樣接近于真的燒錢。
And for North Korea, a great fan of both, the more it burns the better.
對于兩者都熱衷的朝鮮來說，越燒錢越好。
It launched more than 95 cruise and ballistic missiles in 2022, a new record.
2022年，朝鮮發射了超過95枚巡航導彈和彈道導彈，創下新紀錄。
And it loves above all to splurge on the biggest, showiest rockets, like the intercontinental ballistic missile it fired eastwards into the sea on February 18th.
朝鮮最喜歡把錢揮霍在最大最炫的火箭上，就像它在2月18日向東面的海里發射的洲際彈道導彈。
Despite being unable to feed its people, North Korea has found innovative ways to fund its missiles programme, including by forging foreign currency, committing insurance fraud and making and selling arms and narcotics.
盡管無法養活人民，朝鮮還是找到了創新的方式來資助其導彈計劃，包括偽造外匯、實施保險欺詐，以及制造銷售武器和毒品。
A more novel revenue stream is stolen cryptocurrency.
一個更新穎的收入來源是被盜的加密貨幣。
Last year its hackers pinched a record $1.7bn of the stuff, according to a report published this month by Chainalysis, a data firm based in New York.
總部位于紐約的數據公司“據數字”本月發布的一份報告顯示，去年朝鮮黑客竊取了創紀錄的17億美元。
Some of North Korea’s hacking thefts were eye-wateringly big.
朝鮮的一些黑客盜竊案規模大得令人咂舌。
Last March it ripped off a cross-chain bridge, a method for moving cryptocurrency from one coin’s blockchain to another, associated with the game Axie Infinity.
去年3月，它竊取了一個跨鏈橋，這是一種將加密貨幣從一個硬幣的區塊鏈轉移到另一個硬幣的方法，與游戲《阿蟹》有關。
At the time it was discovered, the stolen currency was worth more than $600m, making it the second-biggest crypto-theft ever.
在被發現時，被盜的貨幣價值超過6億美元，成為有史以來第二大加密盜竊案。
But as with all heists, the robbery is just the first step.
但和所有盜竊一樣，這只是第一步。
To launder their loot North Korean hackers employ all sorts of tricks, including splitting up the money, moving it between different crypto-wallets, converting it into different coins and putting it through mixers—large digital pools where crypto owners can deposit funds to obscure their origins.
為了洗錢，朝鮮黑客使用了各種各樣的技巧，包括分割資金，在不同的加密錢包之間轉移，將其轉換為不同的硬幣，并將其放入大型數字池，加密所有者可以在其中存入資金，以掩蓋其來源。
Some of the stolen crypto was put to direct use.
一些被盜的加密貨幣被直接使用。
In 2022 two South Koreans, including an army captain, were arrested on suspicion of selling secrets to the North in return for bitcoin.
2022年，包括一名陸軍上尉在內的兩名韓國人因涉嫌向朝鮮出售機密以換取比特幣而被捕。
But North Korean hackers mostly try to turn the loot into hard cash, either through a broker or more commonly through a centralised exchange.
但朝鮮黑客大多試圖通過經紀人或更常見的集中式交易所將贓物轉換成現金。
The fiat currency obtained is then used to purchase items through established procurement channels, run through front companies and North Korea’s embassies abroad.
然后，通過掛名公司和朝鮮駐外大使館的既定采購渠道，將獲得的法定貨幣用于購買物品。
