YTD, North Korean hackers have stolen about 340.4 million USD worth of cryptocurrency, down 80% from the record of 1.65 billion USD in 2022 – but this is not a signal of the situation. Security has improved or criminal activities have decreased.
In fact, in the past 10 days, the Lazarus group was suspected of being involved in two hacks - Stake (40 million USD) on September 4 and CoinEx (55 million USD) on September 12. The total damage from these two events is more than 95 million USD. Hacks carried out by North Korean Hackers account for about 30% of all cryptocurrencies stolen this year.
North Korea is conducting suspicious trading activities
According to Chainalysis's investigation, North Korean Hackers are using multiple exchanges based in Russia to commit money laundering since 2021. One of the largest money laundering operations is worth 21.9 million USD related to the $100 million Harmony Horizon Bridge hack on June 24, 2022.
At the same time, the Lazarus group also used cryptocurrency mixers such as Tornado Cash and Blender, which were named by the US in the Harmony Bridge hack and other famous hacks carried out by this group.
— Chainalysis (@chainalysis) September 14, 2023
Here's a quick summary of our findings today on North Korean hackers' usage of Russian services. https://t.co/WUoGzNEacB
Against this backdrop, the United Nations is currently working to stop North Korea's cybercrime tactics at the international level – due to information establishing that North Korea will use the stolen money to support its missile program. his nuclear fire.
Meanwhile, companies in the blockchain sector hope that increased smart contract auditing will make hacking difficult, thereby ensuring greater security of on- chain assets.
