U.S. links North Korean hacker group to $600 million crypto theft

[Lucius]

Well, the address was linked to north korean group Lazarus, which is controlled by "General Bureau", North Korea’s primary intelligence bureau.
Moreover, the information was confirmed by blockchain analytics firms Chainalysis and Elliptic, not only US government.

It is your personal matter whether you believe what the US government or the agencies that work for them say. If, by any chance, they had made claims that hackers from another country were to blame, you would no doubt have believed that this was the case. As I have already written, we need to think critically and re-examine what someone is serving us as the truth - and without publicly disclosed evidence that would really point to who is to blame, it all comes down to speculation.

I will repeat once again that it is at least strange that someone behind such attacks is not intelligent enough to create a new crypto wallet but uses a coin address that can identify him.

[Crypto Library]

What more can I say about North Korea!  A dictator like Kim Jong Un has the highest power in this country.  Now you want to expect something big from them?  I don't think they will ever be caught or this fund will ever be recovered.  And what can I say about the common people of North Korea, Already they are prisoner to the dictator

[|MINER|]

Is this something new for North Korea?  Earlier, I heard that North Korean hackers had stolen the reserves of several countries.  What else can I say about such a nation? Except few exception public, I think they mostly appreciate these activities. And a dictator like Kim Jong Un has given the gift as a punished for this.

[uneng]

What can north korea do with $600 million? They lack the infrastructure and free markets to make effective use of capital.

They can use this money to trade with sympathetic countries to their cause and greedy dealers in general in exchange for goods. But I guess it will be hard for North Korea to use this money, since United States will be tracking its destination closely and sanctions will be imposed on those who are found to be dealing with funds which are currently on this crypto address.

On the other hand, certain countries are already so full of sanctions against them that receiving stolen funds by North Korea shouldn't look a punishment anyway...

[Gyfts]

Is this something new for North Korea?  Earlier, I heard that North Korean hackers had stolen the reserves of several countries.  What else can I say about such a nation? Except few exception public, I think they mostly appreciate these activities. And a dictator like Kim Jong Un has given the gift as a punished for this.

North Korea sustains its economy on a lot of fraud. They're involved in a lot of USD counterfeiting for some portion of their economy so it's easy to see why they've moved on to crypto fraud. They're being mostly supported by China, because all of their fraud activities would not be enough alone to run the country.

What can north korea do with $600 million? They lack the infrastructure and free markets to make effective use of capital.

They could sell it on the private market easily, probably to some buyers in China. Crypto currency is massive in China, obviously, and the funds that are rendered from those transactions just go to the top levels of the North Korean government. The folks that are starving or dying from disease won't see a penny of it.

[Johnyz]

Is this something new for North Korea?  Earlier, I heard that North Korean hackers had stolen the reserves of several countries.  What else can I say about such a nation? Except few exception public, I think they mostly appreciate these activities. And a dictator like Kim Jong Un has given the gift as a punished for this.

This can also be a black propaganda against North Korea, I don’t know but its really hard to trust news nowadays. This hacking incident should not blame anyone aside from the developer itself, its their fault and they really have to compensate those who lose their funds, this is the result for not improving the system and too focus on earning money. Hope that this is the first and last hacking incidents with Axie.

[eaLiTy]

~
 I can't understand how a country that is practically closed and undeveloped like North Korea has a team of hackers who are very good at computer security

North Korea is a secretive country but that does not mean everyone is a puppet without any education. We were hearing about state sponsored hacking team for decades and now we have solid evidence that majority of the hacks was done by North Korean hackers and we are able to pin point only because they hacked cryptocurrencies where they are not able to delete the logs and the money trail will follow them. There are numerous hacks in the banking network for decades without any concrete evidence.

[dunfida]

~
 I can't understand how a country that is practically closed and undeveloped like North Korea has a team of hackers who are very good at computer security

North Korea is a secretive country but that does not mean everyone is a puppet without any education. We were hearing about state sponsored hacking team for decades and now we have solid evidence that majority of the hacks was done by North Korean hackers and we are able to pin point only because they hacked cryptocurrencies where they are not able to delete the logs and the money trail will follow them. There are numerous hacks in the banking network for decades without any concrete evidence.

Bank hacking incident?  For sure they've found something but never intended to exploit or tell it to public.Why? that would really create some sort of bad publicity of banking system which people might be talking for it

not to be secure totally if they do save up their fiat into banks thats why its never been aired nor been exposed on how things been done or in result with those investigation..

Hacker group could really origin on different country which it would be normal that they would be finding rabbit holes on where they could really advantage on.

[Darker45]

What kind of nation is this? This is North Korea, baby. This is where the absurd is the rule and not the exception. This is where the unreasonable and unimaginable are happening all the time, more often than the reasonable and imaginable.

But what is more interesting about this is that these expert hackers could hardly be supported and trained in their impoverished hermit country. These hackers couldn't become who they are without the backing of China. So the more interesting question would be, what kind of nation helps another nation to become expert robbers?

[STT]

What can north korea do with $600 million? They lack the infrastructure and free markets to make effective use of capital.

The elite will use the money to import goods from other countries with working economies and production.    It makes no difference to the ruling class that the money is being wasted.   The entire country only exists as a satellite of China, similar system to Russia and its puppet regimes hence our current war in a rare instance of sustained resistance.

North Korea also counterfeits foreign currency and misuses its few resources and meagre electricity to steal not produce.  Its not a one off, the whole country is a disaster run by thugs and murderers again similar to Russia.

[el kaka22]

I can tell you why Sky Mavis didn't want to comment on it I mean us government could feel good about it because they are not worried about NK, but just some regular citizen who is CEO of some company could still feel scared against a whole nation. If you get NK against you, you will live in fear, maybe they won't do anything, or maybe they would, who knows? All in all I have to say that NK being behind all of this shocks me a bit.

I didn't know they had this good of hackers, I knew they had "some", but their talent level was unknown to me, considering they do not even have internet for regular people, raising a good hacker must be so hard.

[Pomogator]

To be honest, I'm not surprised. Such a closed country from the whole outside world that has no external obligations to anyone can do this with impunity. They can answer seriously, they have nuclear weapons. I am sure that Kim is satisfied with the work done, because only he has such an opportunity for equipment.

[carlfebz2]

I can tell you why Sky Mavis didn't want to comment on it I mean us government could feel good about it because they are not worried about NK, but just some regular citizen who is CEO of some company could still feel scared against a whole nation. If you get NK against you, you will live in fear, maybe they won't do anything, or maybe they would, who knows? All in all I have to say that NK being behind all of this shocks me a bit.

I didn't know they had this good of hackers, I knew they had "some", but their talent level was unknown to me, considering they do not even have internet for regular people, raising a good hacker must be so hard.

Best hackers?
SK is listed but no NK.
https://bscholarly.com/countries-with-the-best-hackers/

As a company CEO then you would get hesitated on dealing on a particular nation considering that NK isnt someone that you should mess up.
So its not surprising that this issue is been buried gradually.

[arwin100]

I can tell you why Sky Mavis didn't want to comment on it I mean us government could feel good about it because they are not worried about NK, but just some regular citizen who is CEO of some company could still feel scared against a whole nation. If you get NK against you, you will live in fear, maybe they won't do anything, or maybe they would, who knows? All in all I have to say that NK being behind all of this shocks me a bit.

I didn't know they had this good of hackers, I knew they had "some", but their talent level was unknown to me, considering they do not even have internet for regular people, raising a good hacker must be so hard.

Best hackers?
SK is listed but no NK.
https://bscholarly.com/countries-with-the-best-hackers/

As a company CEO then you would get hesitated on dealing on a particular nation considering that NK isnt someone that you should mess up.
So its not surprising that this issue is been buried gradually.

Maybe Skymavis is already moving up on this issue and they already give an assurance that they can get over with this hacking then continue the developments which is already happening to them right now. I guess many people are not following about this case but I can say North Korean Hackers is really good since they penetrate and accumulate that amount of money. But since they have been unmasked for sure other big digital companies will be more careful about this kind of issues.

[Webetcoins]

It is your personal matter whether you believe what the US government or the agencies that work for them say. If, by any chance, they had made claims that hackers from another country were to blame, you would no doubt have believed that this was the case. As I have already written, we need to think critically and re-examine what someone is serving us as the truth - and without publicly disclosed evidence that would really point to who is to blame, it all comes down to speculation.

I will repeat once again that it is at least strange that someone behind such attacks is not intelligent enough to create a new crypto wallet but uses a coin address that can identify him.

In the end, it doesn't matter if it was NK or not, it doesn't even matter if USA is telling the truth or not neither. It was stolen, and it is not back yet, which is the problem and what we should focus on as well. If we keep getting these type of hacks, it is going to hurt crypto ecosystem and we are going to be out of money.

Just one person, one group, one organization or whoever ends up getting most of the money and millions end up with nothing because of it. This is why we should be hoping that it is the end of hacks. We will probably end up with some more for sure, but that doesn't mean that we should get these huge ones, hopefully it's limited to small ones at least.

[dezoel]

I can tell you why Sky Mavis didn't want to comment on it I mean us government could feel good about it because they are not worried about NK, but just some regular citizen who is CEO of some company could still feel scared against a whole nation. If you get NK against you, you will live in fear, maybe they won't do anything, or maybe they would, who knows? All in all I have to say that NK being behind all of this shocks me a bit.

I didn't know they had this good of hackers, I knew they had "some", but their talent level was unknown to me, considering they do not even have internet for regular people, raising a good hacker must be so hard.

I honestly think that NK is no way or shape to threaten someone. I mean they look like they would barely be able to stop their own fugitives, there are so many North Koreans who ran away from there and talk about how bad life is there and they are fine, they do not get killed, they explain to us all the horrible things they do there, and they talk about how all the families they left behind will be shot for them running away, but they still manage to do that.

If those people can do it, sky mavis could have done it as well. If we do not stand up against bullies, then they will keep on bullying people. I believe it's time to cut NK out of global internet for sure.

[verita1]

The FBI is using sophisticated techniques to track down the stolen money. No matter how difficult it is. Criminals always leave traces, There is no perfect crime.

The United States Department of Justice has shown that despite the complexity of cyber fraud with cryptocurrencies, it is a labyrinth that they can solve.

More on the recovery of stolen money from Axie Infinity.

Today CZ in a Tweet said:

The DPRK hacking group started to move their Axie Infinity stolen funds today. Part of it made to Binance, spread across over 86 accounts. $5.8M has been recovered. We have done this many times for other projects in the past too. Stay #SAFU.

https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1517385438469791749?s=20&t=Jfiqmu_iFCBpvV2xRxwGLA

[uneng]

If we do not stand up against bullies, then they will keep on bullying people. I believe it's time to cut NK out of global internet for sure.

That is true, the worse decision is to stay silent fearing retaliations from the aggressor side. It only boosts the incidence and the dimension of new attacks on long run. But I fear there is no way to cut someone out of global internet, since it is decentralized and can be accessed anonymously.

On the other hand, there is a possibility Sky Mavis is working with US intelligence service plus exchanges where the funds were sent, so there is no reason for them to keep talking publicly about it for now.

The FBI is using sophisticated techniques to track down the stolen money. No matter how difficult it is. Criminals always leave traces, There is no perfect crime.

The United States Department of Justice has shown that despite the complexity of cyber fraud with cryptocurrencies, it is a labyrinth that they can solve.

More on the recovery of stolen money from Axie Infinity.

Today CZ in a Tweet said:

The DPRK hacking group started to move their Axie Infinity stolen funds today. Part of it made to Binance, spread across over 86 accounts. $5.8M has been recovered. We have done this many times for other projects in the past too. Stay #SAFU.

https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1517385438469791749?s=20&t=Jfiqmu_iFCBpvV2xRxwGLA

These are good news. It's warming to hear Binance is cooperating in retrieving part of the stolen money, although it's a little amount compared to the total 600$ million theft.

[24Kt]

If we do not stand up against bullies, then they will keep on bullying people. I believe it's time to cut NK out of global internet for sure.

That is true, the worse decision is to stay silent fearing retaliations from the aggressor side. It only boosts the incidence and the dimension of new attacks on long run. But I fear there is no way to cut someone out of global internet, since it is decentralized and can be accessed anonymously.

On the other hand, there is a possibility Sky Mavis is working with US intelligence service plus exchanges where the funds were sent, so there is no reason for them to keep talking publicly about it for now.

The FBI is using sophisticated techniques to track down the stolen money. No matter how difficult it is. Criminals always leave traces, There is no perfect crime.

The United States Department of Justice has shown that despite the complexity of cyber fraud with cryptocurrencies, it is a labyrinth that they can solve.

More on the recovery of stolen money from Axie Infinity.

Today CZ in a Tweet said:

The DPRK hacking group started to move their Axie Infinity stolen funds today. Part of it made to Binance, spread across over 86 accounts. $5.8M has been recovered. We have done this many times for other projects in the past too. Stay #SAFU.

https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1517385438469791749?s=20&t=Jfiqmu_iFCBpvV2xRxwGLA

These are good news. It's warming to hear Binance is cooperating in retrieving part of the stolen money, although it's a little amount compared to the total 600$ million theft.

This is what I like about Binance, their SAFU feature. Though, we can't expect other exchanges to cooperate and recover stolen funds. At least, someone in the industry has the initiative to do so. Another plus point for Binance here.

Also, with the complicated situation when it comes to cyber security, we don't know anymore who's working for who. Just secure your assets as much as possible and don't let these scammers got a hold of your hard-earned money.