The Lazarus Group, a properly-known North Korean hacking syndicate, has being best known as the main suspect within the recent attack that saw $100 million stolen in the Harmony protocol.
According to a different report printed Thursday by blockchain analysis firm Elliptic, the way Harmony’s Horizon bridge was hacked and also the means by that the stolen digital assets were consequently laundered bears an uplifting resemblance with other Lazarus Group attacks.
“There are strong indications that North Korea’s Lazarus Group may result in this thievery, in line with the nature from the hack and also the subsequent washing from the stolen funds.”
Furthermore, Elliptic outlined how the heist was performed, noting the Lazarus Group targeted the login credentials of Harmony employees within the Asia Off-shore region to breach the protocol’s home security system. After gaining charge of the protocol, the online hackers deployed automated washing programs that moved the stolen assets late into the evening.
Elliptic also noted the online hackers have previously transferred over 40% from the $100 million to Tornado Mixer, an Ethereum-based “mixing service” that obscures transaction data and causes it to be very hard for investigators to follow the movement of funds.
Initially, the Harmony team offered up a $a million bounty being an incentive for that online hackers to come back the funds. However, on June 29, Harmony upped the bounty to $ten million and claimed that the full return of funds would finish the analysis with no further criminal charges could be went after.
The $600 million Ronin bridge hack, which happened in April, has additionally been linked to The Lazarus Group. Because of market conditions, the need for the stolen Ether (ETH) has plummeted greater than 60% lower to $230 million.
A current report from Coinclub.com signifies that North Korea has deployed 7,000 full-time online hackers to boost funds through cyberattacks, ransomware and crypto protocol hacks. North Korea may be the world leader in cryptocurrency-related crime, with more than 15 documented cases of cyber thievery amounting to roughly $1.59 billion in stolen funds.
Related: Harmony hacker transmits stolen funds to Tornado Cash mixer
Harmony’s Horizon bridge is the most recent addition to some growing listing of token bridges that happen to be attacked, including Meter, Wormhole and Ronin, getting the quantity of bridge token-related thievery to some little over $1 billion in 2022 alone.
The biggest token bridge to become hacked was Poly Network in 2021, which lost $610 million, the majority of that has since been came back.
