Cryptocurrency Heist: Are North Korean hackers behind the $100m heist?

The last week’s theft involving at least $100 million in cryptocurrency from a US based company is said to be conducted by North Korean hackers. The heist has taken place as the North Korean regime is stepping up all its efforts to secure funding for its aggressive ballistic and nuclear missile programmes.

The heist

On June 23, the crypto assets were stolen Horizon Bridge, which is a service operated by the Harmony blockchain that facilitates transfer of assets to other blockchains, concluded and confirmed three digital investigative firms. Activity by the hackers that have been tracked since the heist has suggested they might be linked to North Korea. This is thus believed to be one of the “most prolific cyber attackers”.

Style of heist similar to North Korean hackers

“The style of attack and high velocity of structured payments to a mixer – used to obscure the origin of funds – is similar to previous attacks that were attributed to North Korea-linked actors,” Chainalysis, a blockchain firm working along with Harmony for investigating the attack, said on Twitter. The conclusion has been chimed in by other investigators as well.

“Preliminarily this looks like a North Korean hack based on transaction behaviour,” said Nick Carlsen, a former FBI analyst who now investigates North Korea’s cryptocurrency heists for TRM Labs, a US-based firm.

It has been suggested that North Korea’s Lazarus Group is behind the theft. Another firm, Elliptic said in its report, “The thief is attempting to break the transaction trail back to the original theft. This makes it easier to cash out the funds at an exchange.”

Eighth theft in a year

If confirmed, this attack conducted last week would be eight such theft in a year to be attributed confidently to North Korea.

If the crash in crypto market continues, experts underline that Pyongyang could use alternate ways to fund its missile programme that has been worth estimated $620m so far this year, said Korea Institute for Defence Analyses in Seoul.