The North Korean hackers who stole over $6 billion from Binance in this latest attack... They were selected during their primary and middle school years and sent to elite schools in Pyongyang, such as Pyongyang No. 1 Middle School, where they focused on mathematics and computer science. The top students went on to attend Kim Chaek University of Technology, Kim Il Sung University, or the University of Automation after graduating high school. The University of Automation is the North Korean military's cyber warfare school, formerly known as Mirim University, a renowned cradle of hackers. These schools specialize in programming, networking, and hacking techniques, and typically take about five years to complete. After graduation, they were assigned to cyber units under the Reconnaissance General Bureau of the Korean People's Army, which oversaw the Lazarus hacking group. South Korean sources estimate this cyber unit to number in the thousands to tens of thousands. In addition, many were sent to Shenyang and Dandong in China, as well as Russia and Southeast Asia, posing as ordinary IT contractors, earning foreign exchange while conducting cyberattacks. Selected individuals and their families were allowed to live in the capital, Pyongyang, and were allocated better housing and rations. However, those who go abroad must leave their families in the country, which is essentially a form of hostage-taking.