According to Japan News, the hacker organization known as Lazarus operating out of North Korea, is suspected of launching repeated cyberattacks against Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges.
The Japanese National Police and the agencies in charge of financial services have come together to release a joint statement with the goal of educating the general public on the strategies employed by hackers and assisting them in taking the necessary precautions. (1)
It has been alleged that members of the Lazarus organization sent phishing emails to employees of cryptocurrency companies with the goal of infecting their machines with malware. They were able to hack the organization’s security system and then take the coins after they acquired access.
According to Japan News, the Lazarus group was responsible for the theft of around $45 million (6.7 billion yen) from the Zaif crypto exchange in 2018, as well as an additional $24 million (3.5 billion yen) from Bitcoin Japan in 2019.
The authorities have verified that several of the hackers’ attempts were successful, but they have not yet disclosed the total sum that was fraudulently obtained by the hackers.
Heist Involving the Lazarus Group in Cryptos
The Lazarus group has become the most notorious hacker group in the crypto sector and the traditional financial business. They are responsible for spreading mayhem in both of these industries.
The United States Treasury Department announced at the beginning of April 2022 that Lazarus was the one responsible for the $600 million Ronin bridge hack.
Two months later, in June, a blockchain analytics company known as Elliptics established a connection between the hackers known as Lazarus and the Harmony horizon bridge exploit (2), which resulted in the theft of one hundred million dollars.
The state-sponsored hacking outfit is purportedly using the stolen cash to bankroll nuclear and ballistic missile projects in North Korea.
Hackers from North Korea Attempting to Steal Crypto
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States issued a warning earlier that North Korean hackers were using phony identities to get work in the United States to finance their nation’s nuclear power projects.
The cybersecurity firm Mandiant also warned the general public about the hacker’s plan to utilize fake identities of specialists in order to gain access to crypto firms.
Arthur Cheong, the founder of Defiance Capital, had elaborate plans for how crypto companies could improve their security in the face of the sophisticated social engineering tactics that were being used by the North Korean hacking group BlueNorOff.