In June, hackers $100 million crypto (opens in new tab) From the Harmony Horizon Bridge. The FBI now says “cyber actors linked to the DPRK” are behind the theft.
by FBI (opens in new tab) (via hacker news (opens in new tab)), the Lazarus Group was responsible for the June 24 robbery, forcing the company to temporarily suspend trading for at least 24 hours.
Harmony’s Horizon Bridge may sound like an Apex Legends map, but it’s actually a high-speed Layer 1 that acts as a token transfer “bridge” between Harmony and the Ethereum network, Binance Chain, and Bitcoin. Blockchain. Hackers were able to use an exploit to divert tokens stored on the bridge to wallets.
The FBI said the Harmony break-in trader traitor (opens in new tab)The FBI, U.S. Treasury Department, and CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) have warned that employees of cryptocurrency companies are being subjected to sophisticated “social engineering of victims.” Basically, hackers use deceptive means to trick victims into downloading malicious software.
“North Korean cyber actors used RAILGUN, a privacy protocol, to launder more than $60 million in Ethereum (ETH) stolen in a June 2022 robbery,” the statement read. increase. Some of the illegally obtained Ethereum was “subsequently sent to several virtual asset service providers and converted to Bitcoin.”
The FBI has reportedly worked with virtual asset service providers to freeze some of the stolen assets. However, the actual amount is currently unknown. So far, 11 digital wallets have been publicly flagged by the FBI.
“The FBI continues to expose and fight North Korea’s use of fraudulent practices, including cybercrime and theft of cryptocurrencies, to generate income for the administration,” the FBI said.
This is not the first major crypto heist carried out by the Lazarus Group. The same organization was involved in his massive $600 million Axie Infinity crypto heist. (opens in new tab) in April last year. At the time, an FBI official told his PC Gamer that North Korea was conducting cryptocurrency heists to evade US and UN sanctions and fund its weapons program.
