Culture | Pirates of Pyongyang

“The Lazarus Heist” explains North Korea’s wild hacking spree

The internet lets the hermit kingdom steal money from all over the world

This photo taken on September 5, 2018 shows a general view of the Ryugyong hotel and city skyline in Pyongyang. - Nuclear-armed North Korea is advancing on the front lines of cyberwarfare, analysts say, stealing billions of dollars and presenting a clearer and more present danger than its banned weapons programmes. - TO GO WITH IT-security-NKorea-US-diplomacy,FOCUS by Sunghee Hwang (Photo by Ed JONES / AFP) / TO GO WITH IT-security-NKorea-US-diplomacy,FOCUS by Sunghee Hwang (Photo by ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images)

The Lazarus Heist. By Geoff White. Penguin Business; 304 pages; $29.95 and £20

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “The pirates of Pyongyang”

The right way to fix the energy crisis

From the June 25th 2022 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Culture

An illustration of two hands holding pencils and writing on each other's sleeves, which resemble books.

Sex, drugs or chastity?

Pope Francis has written the first memoir by a sitting pope. God help us

An illustration of a blue backpack under a bright spotlight.

Backpacks are, surprisingly, in vogue

They are following in sneakers’ path and becoming more fashionable


An illustration of tornado echoing the shapes of the Spotify logo with broken notes flying in the air.

Spotify’s playlists have altered the music industry in unexpected ways

A critical assessment of the Swedish streaming giant’s musical legacy


Henri Bergson was once the world’s most famous philosopher

He sought to reconcile science and metaphysics

Witty and wise, “A Real Pain” is a masterpiece in a minor key

Jesse Eisenberg’s deceptively slight film asks big moral questions

Now it’s all about TikTok. But Huawei led the way

The Chinese telecoms firm was the first to raise America’s hackles