They were illicitly laundered through particular hacking techniques (in particular a particular technique called “cross-chain” up to 7 billion dollars in cryptocurrencies at the hands of the Lazarus group, a group of hackers notoriously linked to North Korea associated with the theft of approximately $900 million in such proceeds between July 2022 and July of this year.
What we know about the Lazarus group’s cryptocurrency theft
“since they are traditionally used i mixer [dei programmi che permettono le transazioni di criptovalute in anonimato]they continue to be subject to seizures and sanctions scrutiny, even crypto crime moving towards asset types [di programmi, insomma] Is increasing“, has declared blockchain analytics firm Elliptic in a new report released this week.
Cross-chain crime refers to the conversion of cryptographic assets from one token (or blockchain) to another, often in rapid succession, in an attempt to obscure their origin, making it a profitable method for laundering money for theft of cryptocurrencies and an alternative to approaches such as mixers; to make a long story short instead of using a mixer to make cryptocurrency transactions to Tizio, I give them first to Caio who then gives them to Giovanni who only at the end gives them to Tizio, like this the Lazarus group is more difficult to get caught.
According to data collected by Elliptic, the Lazarus Group’s use of cross-chain bridges contributed to the majority of the increase in 111% in the proportion of funds sent through these services.
Yes esteem that the North Korean hacker gang has stolen nearly $240 million in cryptocurrency since June 2023following a series of attacks against Atomic Wallet ($100 million), CoinsPaid ($37.3 million), Alphapo ($60 million), Stake.com ($41 million) and CoinEx ($31 million of dollars).
And that’s not all, the cybersecurity company then added regarding the Lazarus group: “The variety, number and eccentricity in the implementation of campaigns [del gruppo] Lazarus define [cos’è] this group, as well as the fact that it carries out all three pillars of criminal activity on the Internet: cyber espionage, cyber sabotage and the pursuit of financial gain“, has declared ESET regarding another attack that occurred towards the end of last month.
In addition to the North Korean group, another hacker has also been linked to the use of Avalanche Bridge to deposit more than 9,500 bitcoins, while simultaneously using cross-chain solutions to move some of the looted assets virtually.
“As demonstrated by the fact that assets end up on the same blockchain on numerous occasions, these transactions serve no legitimate commercial purpose other than to obscure their origin“said Elliptic. “The bridge back and forth for obscuring purposes – i.e.chain hopping‘ – it is now a recognized type of money laundering“.
The disclosure of the facts in question came as South Korea’s national intelligence services (NIS) warned North Korea has been attacking the shipbuilding sector since the beginning of the year.
“The hacking methods mainly used by North Korean hacking organizations were of occupy and bypass IT maintenance company PCs and install malicious code after distributing phishing emails to internal employees“, has declared the agency.
Unfortunately, cyber threats from think tanks are commonplace, often under our noses and organizations various nations must take the necessary precautions.
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