North Korean IT Workers Have Been Building DeFi Protocols Since 2020. The $285M Drift Hack Shows Why That Matters.
A researcher says over 40 DeFi platforms have employed DPRK state-linked developers. Their seven years of blockchain experience is, as she notes, not a lie. The Drift Protocol exploit was not a code bug. It was a six-month intelligence operation conducted by a North Korean state-affiliated group that attended conferences, deposited real capital, and waited.