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Tokyo, Japan — A North Korean hacking group stole cryptocurrency value over $300 million from the Japan-based trade DMM Bitcoin, in response to Japanese police and the USA’ FBI.
The TraderTraitor group — believed to be a part of Lazarus Group, which is allegedly linked to the Pyongyang authorities — carried out the heist, Japan’s Nationwide Police Company stated Tuesday.
Lazarus Group gained notoriety a decade in the past when it was accused of hacking into Sony Photos as revenge for “The Interview,” a movie that mocked North Korean chief Kim Jong Un.
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The FBI detailed “the theft of cryptocurrency value $308 million US {dollars} from the Japan-based cryptocurrency firm DMM by North Korean cyber actors” in a separate assertion dated Monday.
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It described a “focused social engineering” operation the place a hacker pretended to be a recruiter on LinkedIn to contact an worker of a special crypto pockets software program firm.
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They despatched the worker what seemed to be a pre-employment check, which really contained a malicious line of code.
That allowed the hacker to compromise their system and impersonate the worker, the FBI stated.
“In late Could 2024, the actors doubtless used this entry to govern a reliable transaction request by a DMM worker, ensuing within the lack of 4,502.9 Bitcoin, value $308 million on the time,” it stated.
“The FBI, Nationwide Police Company of Japan, and different US authorities and worldwide companions will proceed to reveal and fight North Korea’s use of illicit actions — together with cybercrime and cryptocurrency theft — to generate income for the regime,” it stated.
North Korea’s cyber-warfare program dates again to no less than the mid-Nineteen Nineties.
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It has since grown to a 6,000-strong cyber-warfare unit referred to as Bureau 121 that operates from a number of nations, in response to a 2020 US navy report.
