FBI accuses North Korean hackers of stealing $100 million crypto

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The FBI confirmed on Monday that North Korean-sponsored hackers known as the Lazarus Group were behind the theft of $100 million worth of cryptocurrency from California-based crypto firm Harmony.

Last year, Harmony reported that unknown hackers stole money from one of its blockchain bridges and that it was working with law enforcement and forensic specialists to identify the perpetrators and recover stolen funds. The company said at the time that it attempted to contact the hackers with an embedded message sent to the culprit’s crypto wallet address.

The Harmony hack was one of many crypto thefts that took place over the past year. Just two months after the Harmony hack, it was reported that another California-based crypto company – Nomad – had lost $190 million worth of virtual currency in a series of thefts.

Nomad said at the time that he was “aware of the incident” and was investigating the matter.

“Our goal is to identify the accounts involved and to trace and recover the funds,” the company said.

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Last year, the FBI also accused the Lazarus Group of stealing around $620 million in cryptocurrency from the virtual game Axie Infinity. The United States sanctioned the group in 2019.

Over the past two years, North Korean state-sponsored hackers have stepped up their thefts against the cryptocurrency industry, which has worried US officials who fear the stolen money could be used to fund North Korea’s nuclear weapons.

Anne Neuberger, the Biden administration’s deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technologies, said last year that she was “concerned about North Korea’s cyber capabilities,” adding that the country uses ” up to a third of [stolen crypto] funds to finance their missile program.

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