The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has confirmed this week that the North Korean cybercriminals group the Lazarus Group (also known as APT38) was responsible for the theft of $100 million in cryptocurrency from Harmony Horizon Bridge in June 2022.
Lazarus—or APT38—is a North Korean state-sponsored hacking group. They are best known for the Sony hack in 2016 and the WannaCry ransomware attack in 2017. In recent times, they have diversified into targeting cryptocurrency and blockchain companies.
According to the FBI, the Lazarus Group used a privacy protocol called ‘RAILGUN’ to launder over $60 million worth of ethereum stolen during the theft in June, 2022. The laundered ethereum cryptocurrency was distributed to several crypto providers and converted into bitcoin.
Some stolen funds were frozen in coordination with virtual asset cryptocurrency providers.
Harmony, the target of the $100 million cryptocurrency theft, develops blockchains for decentralized finance and non-fungible tokens.
North Korea continues to leverage cryptocurrency theft and cybercrime as a means to fund its political regime according to the FBI.
In September 2022 we reported on Lazarus exploiting the Log4j flaw to hack US energy companies.
