North Korea's state-backed hackers have an “aggressive, relentless” knack for finding and exploiting vulnerabilities, making them more dangerous than other groups, a former FBI agent told Benzinga. Social Engineering Hacks? North Korean hackers pose an existential threat to cryptocurrency ecosystems, having stolen over $2 billion worth of assets in 2025 alone. Things have worsened in 2026, with April recording the highest number of cryptocurrency hacking incidents on record. The U.S. government claims that the illegal proceeds from the thefts are used to fund North Korea’s weapons and missile program. Stephanie Talamantez, who spent more than 20 years with the FBI and now serves as Senior Managing Director at Guidepost Solutions , said that these actors have progressed from simple hacking to sophisticated social engineering techniques. “A company can put all the guardrails in place possible, but attacks that exploit human psychology can bypass those defenses within moments,” she said. Talamantez stated that North Korea is running an “aggressive recruitment fraud” in which perpetrators impersonate reputable cryptocurrency companies or headhunters, and that even she was approached in one such attempt on LinkedIn. It’s worth also highlighting the notorious 2022 Ronin Network breach, in which the Lazarus Group stole nearly $620 ... Full story available on Benzinga.com