The U.S. Congressional Research Service has named North Korea, China, Russia and Iran as key actors posing cyber security threats in its latest report covering a ten year period from 2012.

In the report, North Korea was named with the other three as countries posing strategic concern to U.S. cyber security.

The service said these countries accessed government computers through cyber attacks to spy on the U.S. and steal and destroy sensitive information. The report mentioned North Korea's continued cryptocurrency theft using blockchain technology since 2020 and that hackers backed by the regime launched ransomware attacks on healthcare companies in 2021 and last year.

It also said the North engaged in phishing activities targeting the state and defense departments as well as energy and defense contractors.

The report comes as the U.S. government is trying to cut off Pyongyang's illegal funding through cyber hacking that goes toward nuclear and missile development.

The Wall Street Journal earlier said that Democratic lawmakers are pressing President Biden to disclose related crackdown efforts on North Korea, noting that Senators Chris Van Hollen, Elizabeth Warren and Tim Kaine made the request in letters sent to national security advisor Jake Sullivan and the treasury department's under  secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Brian Nelson.