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Notorious hacker group from North Korea: Is Lazarus Group behind the Harmony hack?

 


The Lazarus Group is a well-known North Korean hacker syndicate and is now suspected of being behind the recent Harmony Protocol attack that stole $100 million.


The manner in which Harmony's Horizon Bridge was hacked and how the stolen digital assets were subsequently laundered bears a striking resemblance to other attacks by the Lazarus Group, according to a new report Thursday from blockchain analysis firm Elliptic.


"There is strong evidence that North Korea's Lazarus Group could be behind this theft, given the nature of the hack and the subsequent money laundering."

To do this, Elliptic detailed how the attack was carried out: The Lazarus Group harvested credentials from Harmony employees in Asia Pacific to break into the protocol's security system. After gaining control of the protocol, the hackers deployed automated money laundering schemes that moved the stolen assets late at night.


Elliptic also said the hackers had already transferred more than 40 percent of Tornado Mixer's $100 million . This is an Ethereum-based "mixer service" that obfuscates the transaction data, making it extremely difficult for investigators to track the movements of the money.


The Harmony team has offered a $1 million reward to get the hackers to return the money. On June 29, Harmony increased it to $10 million, saying that if the money were returned in full, the investigation would be closed and no further criminal prosecution would be instituted.


In April, $ 600 million was stolen in a Ronin Bridge hack . This attack was also linked to the Lazarus Group . Due to current market conditions, the value of stolen Ether ( ETH ) has dropped by over 60 percent to $230 million.


According to a recent report by Coinclub.com , North Korea has deployed 7,000 full-time hackers to raise funds through cyberattacks, ransomware, and crypto protocol hacks. North Korea is a global leader in crypto crime. There are over 15 documented cases of cyber attacks that have seen $1.59 billion stolen.


Harmony's Horizon Bridge is the latest case of a token bridge being hacked . Recently, attacks on such bridges have become more common, including Meter, Wormhole, and Ronin. Overall, just over $1 billion was stolen in the attacks in 2022 alone.


The largest token bridge hacked so far was Poly Network in 2021. $610 million was stolen in the process, but has since been returned almost all of it.

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