The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the FBI has recovered over $30 million in cryptocurrency stolen by North Korean hackers earlier this year. It’s only a fraction of the $540 million stolen, but it’s something.
The Axie Infinity recovery represents a shift in law enforcement’s ability to trace funds through a web of so-called crypto addresses, the virtual accounts where cryptocurrencies are stored. These addresses can be created quickly without them being linked to a cryptocurrency company that could freeze the funds.
In its effort to mask the stolen crypto, Lazarus Group used more than 12,000 different addresses, according to Chainalysis. Unlike bank transactions that happen through private networks, movement between crypto accounts is visible to the world on the blockchain.
Advanced blockchain-monitoring tools and cooperation from centralized crypto exchanges enabled the FBI to trace the crypto to where Lazarus Group tried to cash out, investigators said.
The money was laundered through the Tornado Cash mixer.
More Stories
Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Game Season Two Teaser
The teaser for Squid Game Season Two dropped. Blog moderation policy. Read More
Clever Social Engineering Attack Using Captchas
This is really interesting. It’s a phishing attack targeting GitHub users, tricking them to solve a fake Captcha that actually...
US Cyberspace Solarium Commission Outlines Ten New Cyber Policy Priorities
In its fourth annual report, the US Cyberspace Solarium Commission highlighted the need to focus on securing critical infrastructure and...
Cybersecurity Skills Gap Leaves Cloud Environments Vulnerable
A new report by Check Point Software highlights a significant increase in cloud security incidents, largely due to a lack...
Going for Gold: HSBC Approves Quantum-Safe Technology for Tokenized Bullions
The bank giant and Quantinuum trialed the first application of quantum-secure technology for buying and selling tokenized physical gold Read...
This Windows PowerShell Phish Has Scary Potential
Many GitHub users this week received a novel phishing email warning of critical security holes in their code. Those who...