ByBit hack: North Korean hackers have laundered at least $300 million.

The North Korean hackers behind the recent hack of crypto exchange ByBithave reportedly successfully laundered at least $300 million,bringing the total amount they stole to $1.5 billion.

The hack appears to be carried out by the notorious Lazarus hackers, who have been linked to several other crypto platform breaches in the past. Following the ByBit breach, experts are trying to track down and prevent the hackers from turning the stolen crypto into cash.

Experts say the hacking group is working nearly 24 hours a day – potentially funneling the money into the North Korean regime's military development.

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“Every minute counts for hackers trying to obfuscate the path of money and they are extremely skilled at what they do,” says Dr Tom Robinson, co-founder of Elliptic.

According to Dr Robinson, North Korea is the best at laundering cryptocurrency.

“I imagine they have a whole room of people doing this using automated tools and have years of experience. We can also see from their activity that they only take a few hours off each day, probably working shifts to turn crypto into cash.“.

Elliptic 's analysis matches ByBit's, which says 20% of stolen funds are no longer recoverable.

ByBit hack

On February 21, North Korean hackers hacked one of ByBit's suppliers to secretly change the digital wallet address to which 401,000 Ethereum crypto coins were sent. ByBit thought it was transferring the funds to its own digital wallet, but instead sent them to the Lazarus group.

Ben Zhou, the CEO of ByBit, said the company replaced the stolen coins with loans from investors, but, in his words, “has started a war with Lazarus.”

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ByBit's Lazarus Bounty program encourages members to identify stolen funds and freeze them (if possible).

All crypto transactions appear on a public blockchain, so it is possible to track the money as it is transferred by the Lazarus team. If hackers try to use a mainstream crypto service to convert the coins into regular money, the cryptocurrencies can be frozen by the company.

So far, 20 individuals have shared over $4 million in rewards for successfully locating $40 million of the stolen funds.

However, experts are pessimistic about the chances of recovering the remaining funds, given North Korea's expertise in hacking and money laundering.

Another problem is that not all crypto companies are so willing to help. For example, ByBit accused eXch of aiding the hackers (not stopping their activities). However, the service has denied this. It admits that it did not initially stop the funds and that its team was not sure that the coins came from the hack. The service says it is now cooperating.

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The North Korean crypto theft has significant implications for the global economy. First, the theft creates uncertainty and loss of confidence in the cryptocurrency market. Investors and users are concerned about the safety of their funds and the possibility of becoming victims of cyberattacks.

Additionally, the theft of crypto by North Korean hackers could have a negative impact on the development and security of cryptocurrencies in general. cyberattacks expose weaknesses in security systems and can cause market turmoil. The loss of public trust can negatively affect the value of cryptocurrencies.

Finally, these attacks could have geopolitical implications. North Korea is using stolen cryptocurrencies to fund its nuclear weapons and missile programs. This could threaten regional security and provoke reactions from other countries.

Source: www.bbc.com