Security researchers have tied the recent spate of digital breaches on Asian banks to North Korea, in what they say appears to be the first known case of a nation using digital attacks for financial gain.On Thursday, the Symantec researchers said they had uncovered evidence linking an attack at a bank in the Philippines last October with attacks on Tien Phong Bank in Vietnam in December and one in February on the central bank of Bangladesh that resulted in the theft of more than $81 million.
"If you believe North Korea was behind those attacks, then the bank attacks were also the work of North Korea," said Eric Chien, a security researcher at Symantec, who found that identical code was used across all three attacks.
"We've never seen an attack where a nation-state has gone in and stolen money," Mr. Chien added. "This is a first."
In the attack at Bangladesh's central bank in February, the thieves tried to transfer $1 billion in funds from an account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Fed officials became suspicious of the some of requested transfers and released only $81 million to accounts in the Philippines.
"If you presume it's North Korea, $1 billion is almost 10 percent of their G.D.P.," Mr. Chien said. "This is not small change for them."