In the recent trend of North Korean hackers’ cyber attacks, they have grabbed the largest amount of cryptocurrency heist to date, $1.5 billion from the crypto exchange, Bybit. The attack, which has been linked to the Lazarus Group, is significant because it circumvented what was considered a strong security measure, shocking the crypto industry. The cybercriminals attacked Bybit’s cold storage wallets, which were believed to be almost invulnerable to cyberattacks. These wallets are usually kept offline and hold the private keys that are required to make transactions. But the North Korean hackers found a way to exploit a weakness in the multi-signature system, which requires several signatures to authorize the transfer of funds. This was done by taking over an employee’s computer at Bybit’s wallet provider Safe Wallet, from which they introduced the malicious code to the system to request the fake transactions to be processed automatically. The security experts were surprised by the speed of the action. The funds were quickly transferred and mixed on decentralized exchanges, which made it hard to track and retrieve. Bybit had to top up its reserves and take loans to cover the shortfall, and AUM was restored to 77%. Nevertheless, the company has been able to retrieve only 3% of the stolen funds. The Lazarus Group, which is said to be supported by North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau, is reported to have used the stolen cryptocurrencies to finance the country’s nuclear weapons program. It has been reported that North Korean hackers have recently paid their attention to centralized exchanges, having attacked Japan’s DMM Bitcoin and India’s WazirX in 2024. Cybersecurity professionals are concerned that such sophisticated state-sponsored cyber attacks may need new and improved security measures, more cooperation between countries and stricter rules for the crypto market.
North Korean Hackers Pull Off Historic Crypto Heist
