Who has “stolen” in the amount of $ 1.5 billion digital assets? FBI name North Korea – FirstPost

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation accused North Korea on Wednesday of being behind the theft of digital activities worth $ 1.5 billion last week, the largest crypto in history.

Bybit Bybit, based in Dubai, reported last week that he was robbed by 400,000 in Cryptocurrency Ethereum.

According to the company, the attackers exploited security protocols during a transaction, allowing them to transfer the assets to an unidentified address.

On Wednesday, the US government pointed out to Pyongyang.

“(North Korea) was responsible for theft of $ 1.5 billion in virtual assets since the exchange of cryptocurrency, Bybit,” FBI said in a public service announcement.

The office said that a group called a traitor, also known as The Lazarus Group, was behind theft.

He said that they “proceeded quickly and transformed some of the assets stolen into Bitcoin and other virtual assets dispersed on thousands of addresses on multiple blockchain.”

“These assets are expected to be washed further and, finally, converted to Fiat currency,” added FBI.

The Lazarus group has gained notoriety a decade ago, when he was accused of hacked in Sony Pictures as revenge for “The Interview”, a film that mocked the North -Corean leader Kim Jong Un.

It was also assumed that it was behind Ethereum and USD coin of $ 620 million in the Ronin network of 2022, previously the largest crypto theft.

And in December, the United States and Japan blamed Cryptocurrency to over $ 300 million since the exchange of DMM Bitcoin, based in Japan.

The Cyber-Warfare program in North Korea dates at least in the mid-1990s, and the country was nicknamed “the most prolific Cyber-Thro-Thief by a cybersecurity company.

Pyongyang’s program has grown at a 6,000 -year -old cyber war unit, known as office 121, operating from several countries, according to a US military report in 2020.

A United Nations Group on North Korean sanction evasion estimated that the nation stole over $ 3 billion in cryptocurrency from 2017.

Much of the hacking activity is directed by Pyongyang’s General Recognition Office, its main foreign information agency.

The stolen money helps to finance the country’s nuclear weapons program, the group said.

(Except for the title, this story was not edited by FIRSTPOST staff.)