朝鲜黑客窃取17亿美元加密货币(下)

Most of the hacking-and-laundering operation is visible to expert eyes, however.

然而，黑客和洗钱的大部分操作对于专家来说是可见的。

“This isn’t happening in some shadowy corner of the world,” says David Carlisle of Elliptic, another blockchain-analysis company.

另一家区块链分析公司Elliptic的大卫·卡莱尔说:“这并不是在世界上某个阴暗的角落才发生的。”

“It’s happening in public on the blockchain.”

“在区块链上，它在大庭广众之下发生。”

This helps investigators trace funds and understand hacking methods—and they are getting better at doing both.

这有助于调查人员追踪资金和了解黑客的方法——他们在这两方面都做得越来越好。

America has blacklisted crypto-wallets associated with North Korean hackers.

美国已经将与朝鲜黑客有关的加密钱包列入了黑名单。

In May it targeted Blender.io, a mixer used in the Axie Infinity hack.

今年5月，它瞄准了Blender.io，一个用于破解“阿蟹”的混合器。

In September American investigators recovered $30m of cryptocurrency stolen in that hack.

今年9月，美国调查人员追回了在那次黑客袭击中被盗的3000万美元加密货币。

Given a drop in the value of cryptocurrency after the heist, that represented about 10% of the total.

考虑到盗窃后加密货币价值的下降，这大约占总额的10%。

On February 16th Norwegian authorities seized another $5.8m.

2月16日，挪威当局又查获了580万美元。

But countries should adopt more stringent measures, argues Allison Owen of the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think-tank.

但是，伦敦智库皇家联合军种研究所的艾利森·欧文认为，各国应该采取更严格的措施。

“Most hacks begin with relatively unsophisticated phishing attacks.

“大多数黑客都是从相对简单的网络钓鱼攻击开始的。

Better regulation of the industry and cyber-hygiene could help prevent them.”

更好的行业监管和网络卫生有助于防止此类事件的发生。”

The crypto industry is meanwhile getting better at policing itself.

与此同时，加密行业在自我监管方面也做得越来越好。

On February 14th two centralised exchanges, Binance and Huobi, froze $1.4m of cryptocurrency associated with a North Korean hack.

2月14日，两家中央交易所币安和火币网冻结了与朝鲜黑客有关的140万美元加密货币。

The hackers are also adapting and improving.

黑客们也在适应和改进。

“It is a bit of a game of whack-a-mole,” says Mr Carlisle.

卡莱尔表示:“这有点像打地鼠游戏。”

Even if North Korea’s hackers could actually lay their hands on only a fraction of the $1.7bn they stole, it would all be worthwhile, notes Dennis Desmond, a former American intelligence officer who now teaches at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia.

前美国情报官员、目前在澳大利亚阳光海岸大学任教的丹尼斯?德斯蒙德指出，即使朝鲜黑客实际上只能拿到他们窃取的17亿美元中的一小部分，这一切也都是值得的。

“It’s all free cheese,” he says.

“都是免费的奶酪，”他说。

Mr Desmond foresees a continuing “arms race” in theft and counter-theft capability between the hackers and crypto-crimefighters.

德斯蒙德预计，黑客和加密犯罪斗士之间在盗窃和反盗窃能力方面的“军备竞赛”将持续下去。

If the crimefighters could only get the upper hand, it might help to slow the actual arms race, illuminated by a blaze of ballistic missiles, taking place on the Korean peninsula.

如果打击犯罪的人能够占据上风，可能就有助于减缓朝鲜半岛上发生由弹道导弹引发的实际军备竞赛。