The US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) confirmed that the Lazarus and APT 38 group are responsible for the theft of $ 100 million on Harmony blockchain platform in June last year. They also tried to make money through the Privacy Protocol Railgun.
Crime experts in the USA claim that stolen cryptocurrency is used by North Korea to finance programs for developing ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction.
Harmony is a first -level blockchain that was launched in 2019 and supports Ethereum applications. Using the Horizon blockchain, which operates in this ecosystem, users can move assets between the Harmony network and Bitcoin networks, Ethereum and Binance Chain. In June 2022, the Horizon bridge was hacked and an attacker in 18 minutes was able to withdraw cryptocurrency in the amount of $ 100 million and direct these assets for exchange for Ethereum to a decentralized exchange.
On June 25, according to the FBI, cybercriminals from the Lazarus and APT38 group associated with North Korea, made a $ 100 million from Horizon Bridge of Harmony’s virtual currency. According to the FBI and the Cybersecurity agency and infrastructure security (CISA), hacking was associated with a malicious campaign called “Tradertraitor”, which was headed by the Korean People’s Democratic Republic.
according to new information, on January 13, hackers used a confidentiality protocol called Railgun to launder more than $ 60 million in Ethereum from funds scheduled from the Horizon bridge. Part of these assets in Ethereum was then sent to several crypto -streaks and converted to bitcoin.
Then part of these bitcoins was frozen on some platforms that collaborate with the FBI. The remaining bitcoins were transferred to 11 addresses that the FBI published in their statement.
Horizon’s hacking of the bridge led to the loss of 14 different types of digital assets. The developers initially proposed to hold the network hard for and release billions of Native Native Tokens of the One project to compensate for customer losses. However, the community did not support this plan and it was decided to use funds from the project’s treasury to cover losses.