The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has released a statement claiming North Korean hackers were responsible for the $100m crypto heist from US firm Harmony.
California based Harmony announced in June that a hack had taken place and $100m in digital coins had been stolen from Horizon bridge, a blockchain bridge used to move crypto between blockchain networks.
In a statement released on Monday, the FBI named North Korean hacking groups Lazarus and APT38 as the fraudsters.
The groups used cyber actors to use privacy protocol Railgun to launder more than $60m worth of Ethereum stolen during the heist, with some of the loot being sent to several virtual asset service providers and converted to Bitcoin, the FBI said.
The extremely private state of North Korea has been accused of orchestrating and carrying out cyber-attacks to fund its activities, including their development of nuclear weapons.
Blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis reported in January 2022 that the value of stolen assets from North Korean hackers had risen by 40% during the previous year.
Three North Korean computer programmers stole more than $1.3bn in cash and cryptocurrencies in a series of attacks in 2014 and were charged by the US Department of Justice in 2021.
North Korea denies carrying out the cyber-attacks and has accused the US of “spreading ill-hearted rumours”.
Looking for your next crypto casino? Check out: Bitcasino, Gamb.co or FortuneJack.