FBI Warning: North Korean Hackers Ready to Cash Out Millions of Dollars in Crypto

Quincy Jon, Tech Times 23 August 2023, 12:08 pm

North Korean hackers are poised to pay out millions of dollars from high-profile cryptocurrency heists, according to US authorities.

On Tuesday, the FBI warned cryptocurrency firms about blockchain activity tied to the theft of digital assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars by North Korea-backed Lazarus Group hackers APT38 and "TraderTraitor," TechCrunch reported.

The FBI has been tracking around 1,580 Bitcoin, worth over $40 million, that the North Korean hackers were holding in six different cryptocurrency wallets over the last 24 hours. The FBI claims the stolen money was gathered during "several" bitcoin heists.

FBI Vows to Fight North Korean Cybercrime Activities

The FBI's warning emphasizes the immediate danger of the North Korean hackers withdrawing the $40 million in cash they have taken soon. In a news release posted on its website, the FBI has published six Bitcoin addresses, and crypto firms are asked to carefully review recent blockchain data connected to those addresses and use caution in blocking transactions using these addresses:

3LU8wRu4ZnXP4UM8Yo6kkTiGHM9BubgyiG
39idqitN9tYNmq3wYanwg3MitFB5TZCjWu
3AAUBbKJorvNhEUFhKnep9YTwmZECxE4Nk
3PjNaSeP8GzLjGeu51JR19Q2Lu8W2Te9oc
3NbdrezMzAVVfXv5MTQJn4hWqKhYCTCJoB
34VXKa5upLWVYMXmgid6bFM4BaQXHxSUoL

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"The FBI will continue to expose and combat the DPRK's use of illicit activities—including cybercrime and virtual currency theft—to generate revenue for the regime," the Bureau said, as quoted by CyberNews. The fact that North Korea has a history of utilizing crypto thefts to finance its widely condemned nuclear weapons development is a source of increasing worry.

Notorious Hackers

In recent years, the Lazarus Group has been involved in several high-profile crypto thefts. In June 2023, hackers stole $60 million from AlphaPo and $37 million from CoinsPaid, an Estonian crypto payment company. About 5,500 consumer wallets were hacked from Atomic Wallet in the same month and more than $100 million worth of assets were stolen, as reported by CoinDesk. The Lazarus Group was likely behind the hack, according to blockchain research company Elliptic, demonstrating the group's well-established method of disseminating stolen cryptocurrency.

The FBI has also linked Lazarus Group to the theft of $37 million from the cryptocurrency wallet service CoinsPaid and $60 million from the centralized cryptocurrency payment system AlphaPo.

Massive losses resulted from the group's previous cryptocurrency heists, including the theft of $721 million in cryptocurrency assets from Japan since 2017, the stealing of $625 million in cryptocurrency from the Ronin exchange, and a more recent robbery involving $64 million linked to the Harmony blockchain.

Experts estimate that North Korea's cyberattacks earned $2 billion, and the US government is following them globally. A 2019 UN Security Council report indicated North Korea sought to steal $2 billion, including $571 million in bitcoin.