Last month, a North Korean hacking group that stole virtual assets worth around 2 trillion won succeeded in cashing out a significant portion of them, the British BBC reported on the 10th (local time).
According to BBC, the North Korean hacking group Lazarus successfully cashed out at least $300 million (about 440 billion won) of the $1.46 billion (approximately 2.1 trillion won) worth of Ethereum stolen from the cryptocurrency exchange Bybit.
Lazarus hacked Bybit on the 21st of last month and stole one of the Ethereum wallets. Bybit subsequently offered a bounty and has been tracking the cashing out of the stolen Ethereum. So far, they have tracked and frozen transactions worth $40 million but have been unable to prevent some cash-outs.
Experts believe that the notorious North Korean hacking group works nearly 24 hours a day and that the money obtained through hacking is used to fund the North Korean regime’s military and nuclear development.
Dr. Tom Robinson, co-founder of the virtual asset security company Elliptic, analyzed that among all criminals involved in virtual assets, North Korea is the most skilled at laundering virtual assets.
According to Elliptic’s analysis, 20% of the hacked funds are already untraceable, making recovery unlikely.
Dr. Dorit Dor of the cybersecurity firm Check Point pointed out, "North Korea has built a hacking and successful hacking and money laundering industry with a very closed system and economy," adding, "Moreover, they do not care about the negative perception of cybercrime."
Ben Zhou, CEO of Bybit, emphasized that customers’ funds were not stolen. Subsequently, Bybit has been accumulating lost Ethereum through investor loans, and CEO Zhou mentioned, "We are at war with Lazarus."
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