Binance claims to solve the problem with hackers from North Korea

Apr 28, 2023
The head of the Binance Financial Crimes Department, Tigran Gambaryan, announced that a solution had been found to prevent North Koreans from accessing the crypto exchange.
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A representative of Binance reported on the successful suppression of illegal attempts to register users from North Korea. The Security Department of the trading platform pays special attention to the verification and identification of users. Gambaryan stressed that to comply with the requirements of the exchange, a team of 700 people is involved, which processes over 1300 requests from law enforcement agencies every week.

This week, the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Ministry of Finance (OFAC) imposed a ban on three citizens from North Korea for supporting the hacker group Lazarus Group, which is potentially linked to a variety of cyber-attacks on crypto exchanges.

Binance, the largest crypto exchange, is of great interest to intruders, and therefore, in September 2021, former IRS special agent Tigran Gambaryan was appointed to the post of head of combating financial crimes. It is known that Gambaryan previously headed the investigation of high-profile cybercrimes.

Recall that at the end of March, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) sued Binance and the exchange’s founder Changpeng Zhao for “willful evasion” of compliance with US laws. According to the CFTC, Binance sold unregistered crypto assets and urged users from the United States to evade compliance control using a VPN.

A little earlier, the American division of Binance terminated the deal to purchase the assets of the bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital, citing the “hostile and uncertain legislative climate in the United States.”

In addition, the crypto exchange has quietly lifted restrictions for citizens and residents of Russia. Users report that they can again use MasterCard and Visa cards of local issue to replenish the balance on the crypto exchange after a one-year ban on such transactions.