The assets were stolen on June 23 by Horizon Bridge, a service run by the Harmony blockchain that allows assets to be transferred to other blockchains, three digital research firms have concluded. The activity of hackers from robbery suggests that they may be linked to North Korea – which is believed to be one of the most productive cyber-attackers. The attack style and high speed of structured payments in a mixer – used to disguise the origin of funds – is similar to previous attacks attributed to agents linked to North Korea, Chainalysis, a blockchain company that works with Harmony to investigate the attack. he said on Twitter on Tuesday. This conclusion was repeated by other researchers. “At first glance, this looks like a North Korean hack based on trading behavior,” said Nick Carlsen, a former FBI analyst now investigating North Korean cryptocurrency robberies for TRM Labs, a US-based company. There is strong evidence that the North Korean Lazarus group may be responsible for the theft, based on the nature of the hacking and the subsequent laundering of the stolen funds, another company, Elliptic, said in a report on Thursday. “The thief is trying to break the trace of the transaction back to the original theft,” the report said. “This facilitates the redemption of funds in an exchange.” U.S. officials say Lazarus is controlled by the General Intelligence Agency, North Korea’s main intelligence agency. He has been accused of involvement in the WannaCry ransomware attacks, intrusions of international banks and customer accounts, and the 2014 cyber-attacks against Sony Pictures Entertainment. If confirmed, last week’s attack would be the eighth this year – with $ 1 billion in stolen funds – that could certainly be attributed to North Korea, Chainalysis said. The thefts account for 60% of all funds stolen so far this year, he added. The regime has been stealing funds for cryptocurrency theft in recent years and was responsible for one of the largest cryptocurrency robberies recorded in March, during which nearly $ 615 million was stolen, according to the US Treasury Department. However, North Korea’s ability to cash in on its stolen assets could be hampered by a recent drop in cryptocurrency markets believed to have wiped out millions of dollars from the regime’s funds. If the cryptocurrency crash continues, experts believe Pyongyang could turn to other ways to fund a missile program that has cost about $ 620 million so far this year, according to the Korean Defense Analysis Institute in Seoul.
