The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has blamed a cyber-attack group backed by the government of North Korea for its role in a $100 million crypto heist reported on 24 June 2022. The funds mainly in Ether were stolen from the Harmony Horizon bridge hack.
Lazarus Group, also referred to as APT28 orchestrated the $100 million attack on the Horizon bridge, which allows users on Harmony to transfer value from one blockchain to another. The FBI said, “on Friday, 13 January 2023, that the North Korean cyber actors used RAILGUN, a privacy protocol, to launder over $60 million worth of ETH stolen during the June 2022 heist.”
A portion of these funds were frozen, in coordination with some of the virtual asset service providers, $1.1m USDC that originated from Harmony Bridge Hack was blacklisted by Circle:
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0x902c156e19ccb6a0044e1d58fcead36fe1bd2c39ea94f75502b04484cfcc665a
0xda1a970f9a1fa16dd868b931c242a3608783c6741cd882c69ee53c24c70f04c8
The remaining Bitcoin was subsequently moved to the following addresses:
1BK769SseNefb6fe9QuFEi8W4KGbtP8gi3
15FcqYRbwh2JsRUyBjvZ4jJ2XAD3pycGch
1HwSof6jnbMFpfrRRa2jvydYdopkkGB4Sn
15emeZ7buVegqhYh9PekH7cwFEJcCeVNpS
3MSbCJCYtx5sj1nkzD4AMEhhvvviXBc8XJ
17Z79rZpkk8kUiJseg5aELwYKaoLnirMUn
bc1qp2vvntdedxw4xwtyd4y3gc2t9ufk6pwz2ga4ge
3P9WebHkiDxCi8LDXiRQp8atNEagcQeRA3
37fnBxofDeph2fpBZxZKypNkwdXAt9nT6F
185NxhFAmKZrdwn9rVga3kqbvDP4FkbTNw
12283Cq1pJ3f1gXwqi6K3bRf5LZb8Bkm6g
A blockchain sleuth in the official Harmony One discord, confirmed that the newly hired Developer at Harmony One has fallen victim to a malicious phishing contract and his wallet has been drained of $3000 in Ether’s value so far, same story triggered the $100m hack in June 2022.
The FBI, in conjunction with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the U.S. Treasury Department, previously published a joint Cybersecurity Advisory describing a malware campaign dubbed “TraderTraitor” that the DPRK used in the Harmony intrusion. The FBI is committed to working with relevant stakeholders “to expose and combat” illegal activities in North Korea, including cybercrime and organized crypto heists.
Similarly, the recent FBI’s Phone Scam Investigation Resulted in the Forfeiture of Nearly $3 Million in Cryptocurrency, Jean Pierre Njock, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced that an investigation of a fraud scheme targeting vulnerable victims has resulted in the forfeiture of approximately 151 Bitcoins, as well as other digital assets.
Interestingly, FBI relied on the blockchain investigations conducted by on-chain sleuth ZachXBT in recovering; Audemars Piquet Royal Oak Watch; BAYC 9658, AP watch, 86.56 Ether and Doodle 3114 stolen from the phishing scam orchestrated by Horror (HZ) aka Chase Senecal in 2021.
Since December 2021 we’ve seen over 600 Discord servers compromised and 12+ NFT related Twitter accounts hacked. FBI trail on Chase Senecal is a good fight against Crypto Phishing Scams/ social engineering scam currently ravaging the Crypto Industry.