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

[uneng]

The United States has linked North Korean hackers to the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency tied to the popular online game Axie Infinity, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Thursday.

Ronin, a blockchain network that lets users transfer crypto in and out of the game, said digital cash worth almost $615 million was stolen on March 23.

No one has explicitly assigned blame for the hack, but on Thursday the U.S. Treasury identified a digital currency address used by the hackers as being under the control of a North Korean hacking group often dubbed “Lazarus.”

“The United States is aware that the DPRK has increasingly relied on illicit activities — including cybercrime — to generate revenue for its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs as it tries to evade robust U.S. and U.N. sanctions,” a Treasury Department spokesperson said, using the initials of North Korea’s official name.

The United States says the Lazarus hacking group is controlled by the Reconnaissance General Bureau, North Korea’s primary intelligence bureau. It has been accused of involvement in the “WannaCry” ransomware attacks, hacking of international banks and customer accounts, and the 2014 cyberattacks on Sony Pictures Entertainment.

U.S. links North Korean hacker group to Axie Infinity crypto theft

Finally the responsible for the biggest crypto theft of all times was revealed. Not only United States, but also Chainalysis and Elliptic Blockchain analytics firms confirmed the information.

I don't know why, but Sky Mavis (the company owner of Axie Infinity) and CrowdStrike, company hired to investigate the theft, didn't want to comment anything regards the recent findings.

For me it's absurd to see there are sovereign countries filling their treasuries with stolen funds from virtual robbery practices. What kind of nation is this?

[1715548855]

1715548855

[Moneyprism]

we already know that North Korea has been using their hacker team for a long time to raise funds to finance their nuclear plan... one of the most popular ransomware of this hacker team is Global WannaCry 2.0 and also some other viruses... 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

[Poker Player]

For me it's absurd to see there are sovereign countries filling their treasuries with stolen funds from virtual robbery practices. What kind of nation is this?

And you still wonder? A communist country where producing goods and services is not exactly what characterizes them, has to end up stealing in order to maintain itself, because in the end such systems all end up the same: with economic collapse due to a decreasing production and a fictitious price control.

Read this thread: Enjoy communism (III) rats eating dead people and people eating rats in NK

[avikz]

North Korea is living under dictatorship since its separation from mainlan Korea. The hacker group there works directly with the government and not an anonymous one. Due to their crimes against the humanity, other economies have imposed heavy sanctions on North Korea so they had to find a way to generate revenue.

Also I wouldn't wonder if Chinese government is behind all the infrastructure. Because in N. Korea, people are struggling to earn enough just feed their families. So having a computer is a distant dream for majority of the citizens. When you see N. Korea is doing something technical, you need to understand that China is supporting there.

[Lucius]

I have not seen any evidence in the article to substantiate the claim that North Korea is responsible for the hacking, but I know that they are the culprit on duty for all the hacking that occurs. It is especially interesting how clumsy these hackers are to use the address that was previously associated with them, which is really hard to believe.

No one has explicitly assigned blame for the hack, but on Thursday the U.S. Treasury identified a digital currency address used by the hackers as being under the control of a North Korean hacking group often dubbed “Lazarus.”

It seems to me that if you want to commit a perfect online crime today, all you need to do is put all the blame on one of the countries on the US blacklist - so while I can't say that's the case here, we still need to think critically and leave the possibility that maybe someone else is to blame for this, and many other hacks.

[boris singer]

If it is indicated that there is support or hackers facilitated by the state, then behind the scenes it will be much more terrible. I've been hearing information about the first Axie Infinity for a long time and so far when the news has been announced by US intelligence agencies, it identifies a connection funded by the North Korean government for a specific purpose.

[Leviathan.007]

Saw that on the news and I'm not gonna say if I believe the thefts were from North Korea or not because we cannot be sure about it even if we have the IP range of the theft group from North Korea there is still a possibility to say some scammer is doing this to stay untracked while the governments and organizations are pointing to North Korea due to bad name they have, but still considering the relations between North Korea and the USA that's not surprising to see us governments saying such thing, true or not.

[Kakmakr]

The thing is this.... How do you prove that a specific group are linked to a Bitcoin address? They have to re-use a Bitcoin address and you cannot tell me that a sophisticated hacker group will re-use Bitcoin addresses.  This can just be one more of those "conspiracy theories" that could be invented to serve a specific agenda for the US government.

In this case it could be an agenda to "blame" Crypto currency for something horrendous, so that it gives them ammunition to over regulate it. (Like 911 gave them FREE pass to use surveillance on everyone, even if they were not linked to terrorism) 

[fiulpro]

I don't think it would be that easy to pin point the person especially if they live in North Korea as well, the government itself is outrageous as well and therefore what the US have to do is thorough investigation and even after that they would still have to run checks to make sure they are not rounding just everyone up in the group. This would require a lot of support from North Korean government as well, if they want to solve the case and get money back, which again is impossible.. therefore I do think even if they can blame them for it, present the evidence as well, there is nothing that would come out of it much.

The thing is this.... How do you prove that a specific group are linked to a Bitcoin address? They have to re-use a Bitcoin address and you cannot tell me that a sophisticated hacker group will re-use Bitcoin addresses.  This can just be one more of those "conspiracy theories" that could be invented to serve a specific agenda for the US government.

In this case it could be an agenda to "blame" Crypto currency for something horrendous, so that it gives them ammunition to over regulate it. (Like 911 gave them FREE pass to use surveillance on everyone, even if they were not linked to terrorism) 

Definately but again we are not sure how they cannot be linked to this case as well, it all depends on them presenting some evidence, now crypto is semi - transparent they need to present the evidence to the public and list the addresses, to and for that way everyone can check it as well. It's not as complicated as fiat.

[uneng]

And you still wonder? A communist country where producing goods and services is not exactly what characterizes them, has to end up stealing in order to maintain itself, because in the end such systems all end up the same: with economic collapse due to a decreasing production and a fictitious price control.

Read this thread: Enjoy communism (III) rats eating dead people and people eating rats in NK

That is shocking and disgusting! We have to thank God every day we weren't born in such horrendous place! If there is something close to hell in earth it's a communist country, without any doubts.

I have not seen any evidence in the article to substantiate the claim that North Korea is responsible for the hacking, but I know that they are the culprit on duty for all the hacking that occurs. It is especially interesting how clumsy these hackers are to use the address that was previously associated with them, which is really hard to believe.

No one has explicitly assigned blame for the hack, but on Thursday the U.S. Treasury identified a digital currency address used by the hackers as being under the control of a North Korean hacking group often dubbed “Lazarus.”

It seems to me that if you want to commit a perfect online crime today, all you need to do is put all the blame on one of the countries on the US blacklist - so while I can't say that's the case here, we still need to think critically and leave the possibility that maybe someone else is to blame for this, and many other hacks.

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.

I wasn't aware about this virtual pillage practice by North Korea's state, but besides this article, it's possible to find another informations about Lazarus group on google, always directly connecting them to the national dictatorship. Moreover, it seems it's already a common practice from North Korea, as other members here have mentioned.

[Fortify]

The United States has linked North Korean hackers to the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency tied to the popular online game Axie Infinity, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Thursday.

Ronin, a blockchain network that lets users transfer crypto in and out of the game, said digital cash worth almost $615 million was stolen on March 23.

No one has explicitly assigned blame for the hack, but on Thursday the U.S. Treasury identified a digital currency address used by the hackers as being under the control of a North Korean hacking group often dubbed “Lazarus.”

“The United States is aware that the DPRK has increasingly relied on illicit activities — including cybercrime — to generate revenue for its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs as it tries to evade robust U.S. and U.N. sanctions,” a Treasury Department spokesperson said, using the initials of North Korea’s official name.

The United States says the Lazarus hacking group is controlled by the Reconnaissance General Bureau, North Korea’s primary intelligence bureau. It has been accused of involvement in the “WannaCry” ransomware attacks, hacking of international banks and customer accounts, and the 2014 cyberattacks on Sony Pictures Entertainment.

U.S. links North Korean hacker group to Axie Infinity crypto theft

Finally the responsible for the biggest crypto theft of all times was revealed. Not only United States, but also Chainalysis and Elliptic Blockchain analytics firms confirmed the information.

I don't know why, but Sky Mavis (the company owner of Axie Infinity) and CrowdStrike, company hired to investigate the theft, didn't want to comment anything regards the recent findings.

For me it's absurd to see there are sovereign countries filling their treasuries with stolen funds from virtual robbery practices. What kind of nation is this?

It's long been known that North Korea will stoop to any level in order to fund their government, so it's somewhat unsurprising that they would target a supposedly anonymous cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. They have the resources of a nation state, likely thousands of hackers all probing targets every single day and there will never be any legal retaliation against them so they can do it all day long. It only takes getting lucky with one exploit, even zero-days, for them to break into exchanges and steal many millions as we see here. It's not like hacking into a bank which leaves a paper trail, they can simply vanish with the money and this may always be a weakness of Bitcoin.

[kaya11]

Saw that on the news and I'm not gonna say if I believe the thefts were from North Korea or not because we cannot be sure about it even if we have the IP range of the theft group from North Korea there is still a possibility to say some scammer is doing this to stay untracked while the governments and organizations are pointing to North Korea due to bad name they have, but still considering the relations between North Korea and the USA that's not surprising to see us governments saying such thing, true or not.

So true, all the hackings would be pin pointed to NK after this. There is no solid proof and all are just theories. However the story would be different if NK would admit it and tell the world which is never gonna happen.

[Fatunad]

Saw that on the news and I'm not gonna say if I believe the thefts were from North Korea or not because we cannot be sure about it even if we have the IP range of the theft group from North Korea there is still a possibility to say some scammer is doing this to stay untracked while the governments and organizations are pointing to North Korea due to bad name they have, but still considering the relations between North Korea and the USA that's not surprising to see us governments saying such thing, true or not.

So true, all the hackings would be pin pointed to NK after this. There is no solid proof and all are just theories. However the story would be different if NK would admit it and tell the world which is never gonna happen.

So what if they do able to link out on NK hacker group? There's nothing they could do on getting those funds back and also there's no one that they could blame nor even think about attaching the origin country.
Hacks is totally that normal on this market and if owners or developers are really not that mindful about security then they would be easily fucked up and lost millions of dollars if those hackers
have the chance on doing so.

[ultrloa]

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

Talents excel everywhere and for sure North Korean leaders pick their citizen who have potential talents on hacking then train them to enhance their talents then used this for their own benefits. We know how life hard on North Korea so most provably they have standing order on government to do such activities. This North Korean hackers are really good so I guess they have good resources to do a lot of illegal activities in future.

[24Kt]

Saw that on the news and I'm not gonna say if I believe the thefts were from North Korea or not because we cannot be sure about it even if we have the IP range of the theft group from North Korea there is still a possibility to say some scammer is doing this to stay untracked while the governments and organizations are pointing to North Korea due to bad name they have, but still considering the relations between North Korea and the USA that's not surprising to see us governments saying such thing, true or not.

So true, all the hackings would be pin pointed to NK after this. There is no solid proof and all are just theories. However the story would be different if NK would admit it and tell the world which is never gonna happen.

So what if they do able to link out on NK hacker group? There's nothing they could do on getting those funds back and also there's no one that they could blame nor even think about attaching the origin country.
Hacks is totally that normal on this market and if owners or developers are really not that mindful about security then they would be easily fucked up and lost millions of dollars if those hackers
have the chance on doing so.

Now, that they identify where it was coming from, they will know how to potentially stop it next time they try to break somebody's vault. They will for sure be on their watch list and anything coming from that group or any related activity will be on the magnifying glass of authorities. They may not get the funds back but they are looking for evidences how to pin down that group. But if they are indeed genius hackers they will always find a way how to get away from the prying eyes of these authorities.

[Hydrogen]

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

In 2003 there was a story published claiming north korea trained 100 hackers to wage electronic warfare on the internet every year.

North Korea's School for Hackers

IN NORTH KOREA'S mountainous Hyungsan region, a military academy specializing in electronic warfare has been churning out 100 cybersoldiers every year for nearly two decades.

Graduates of the elite hacking program at Mirim College are skilled in everything from writing computer viruses to penetrating network defenses and programming weapon guidance systems.

https://www.wired.com/2003/06/north-koreas-school-for-hackers/

If NK claims to train 100 cybersoldiers every year, the real number might be closer to 3 cybersoldiers. But they have been at it for a long time, so they must have at least 10 hackers working for them by now.

It would be interesting to know how many global electronic intrusions and attacks NK is responsible for.

[Oilacris]

Saw that on the news and I'm not gonna say if I believe the thefts were from North Korea or not because we cannot be sure about it even if we have the IP range of the theft group from North Korea there is still a possibility to say some scammer is doing this to stay untracked while the governments and organizations are pointing to North Korea due to bad name they have, but still considering the relations between North Korea and the USA that's not surprising to see us governments saying such thing, true or not.

So true, all the hackings would be pin pointed to NK after this. There is no solid proof and all are just theories. However the story would be different if NK would admit it and tell the world which is never gonna happen.

So what if they do able to link out on NK hacker group? There's nothing they could do on getting those funds back and also there's no one that they could blame nor even think about attaching the origin country.
Hacks is totally that normal on this market and if owners or developers are really not that mindful about security then they would be easily fucked up and lost millions of dollars if those hackers
have the chance on doing so.

Now, that they identify where it was coming from, they will know how to potentially stop it next time they try to break somebody's vault. They will for sure be on their watch list and anything coming from that group or any related activity will be on the magnifying glass of authorities. They may not get the funds back but they are looking for evidences how to pin down that group. But if they are indeed genius hackers they will always find a way how to get away from the prying eyes of these authorities.

Hackers wont be called hackers if they would really be leaving up some trace for government for them to be traced up thats why its understandable that cracking them down wont really be that easy

or would really be remaining to be anonymous for a life time but you are right that they are on watchlist but trying out to get rid nor to control? Its impossible.

Specially now that hackers could move out easily their funds and remained undetected via crypto which make the job even more harder.

[bittraffic]

I have not seen any evidence in the article to substantiate the claim that North Korea is responsible for the hacking, but I know that they are the culprit on duty for all the hacking that occurs. It is especially interesting how clumsy these hackers are to use the address that was previously associated with them, which is really hard to believe.

No one has explicitly assigned blame for the hack, but on Thursday the U.S. Treasury identified a digital currency address used by the hackers as being under the control of a North Korean hacking group often dubbed “Lazarus.”

It seems to me that if you want to commit a perfect online crime today, all you need to do is put all the blame on one of the countries on the US blacklist - so while I can't say that's the case here, we still need to think critically and leave the possibility that maybe someone else is to blame for this, and many other hacks.

Its always been the case, its horrendous to see news sites and US Treasury put all these in the news while  still make things confidential/classified. How is this being believed by its readers?

Even the alleged Russian pipeline hack doesn't put any evidences to make it believable but people condemn Russia for it. People are going to hate NK too and its easy that way after all that country has no voice over the media outside theirs.

[davis196]

This news is pretty old.I've been reading about this theft several weeks ago.
I guess that the North Korean hackers are very good.This is only one of their major thefts.The entire amount of the coins stolen by them must be more than 1 billion.I assume that this is the main funding source of the North Korea nuclear program.Is there a way to completely cut North Korea from the world wide web?
I was kinda hyped about joining Axie infinity a few months ago.I'm glad that I didn't play the game and I didn't invest any coins into a platform with such weak online security.

[iv4n]

This news is pretty old.I've been reading about this theft several weeks ago.
I guess that the North Korean hackers are very good.This is only one of their major thefts.The entire amount of the coins stolen by them must be more than 1 billion.I assume that this is the main funding source of the North Korea nuclear program.Is there a way to completely cut North Korea from the world wide web?
I was kinda hyped about joining Axie infinity a few months ago.I'm glad that I didn't play the game and I didn't invest any coins into a platform with such weak online security.

In the last few years, many hacker attacks have been linked to North Korea! Especially those attacks in which a large number of coins (all sorts) worth hundreds of millions of dollars were stolen, in some cases billions! I did not notice that these cases are coming to an end in court, like everything is quickly forgotten! Until the next attack happens!

UN Experts: North Korea Stealing Millions in Cyber Attacks
UN experts say North Korea is continuing to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from financial institutions and cryptocurrency firms and exchanges, illicit money that has become an important source of revenue for the government and its nuclear and missile programs.

Source: https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-02-06/un-experts-north-korea-seeks-to-produce-material-for-nukes

Looks like they have some army of hackers working miracles, and I doubt they'll stop with this stuff! As the OP says this is very unfair, but I doubt they care about it, they seem to be at war, and in war, everything is allowed, right? I guess they need money for all those rockets they are firing almost every week, testing something new all the time, and showing their power to the world! They need to fund all that somehow!