US Authorities Accuses North Korea Over $600-Million Crypto Heist

Synopsis: According to the FBI, the Lazarus Group has breached the Ronin security as the US Treasury Department has the proof of the updated sanctions which include the wallet address, which received the funds hence, attributing the Lazarus group regarding the complete matter.

The US Treasury Department on Thursday accused the North Korean-tied hackers of a $620-million cryptocurrency heist from the Ronin Network, which is owned by Sky Mavis a developer group. On March 23, Ronin a blockchain network suffered a loss of digital cash worth around $620-million while letting users transfer money in the terms of crypto with the medium of games. 

According to the FBI, Lazarus Group has breached the Ronin security as the US Treasury Department has the proof of the updated sanctions which include the wallet address, that received the funds hence, attributing the Lazarus group regarding the complete matter. Ronin Network on Thursday said in a statement, 

We are still in the process of adding additional security measures before redeploying the Ronin Bridge to mitigate future risk. Expect the bridge to be deployed by the end of the month.

As per the reports, Ronin is a Blockchain platform, which is behind Axie Infinity a very popular non-fungible token (NFT) game. They also allow users to transfer funds between Axie infinity and some other blockchains. However, since the cyber attack, all of these have been blocked off. Also, regarding the same, the crypto network said, “We expect to deliver a full post-mortem that will detail security measures put in place and next steps by the end of the month.”

Sky Mavis, the Blockchain platform and Axie Infinity operator has admitted the security breach and has confirmed that 173,600 Ethereum and 25.5M USDC (a cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar) were drained in two transactions from Ronin Bridge. Regarding the same, Ronin Bridge said in a statement,

The attacker used hacked private keys in order to forge fake withdrawals. We discovered the attack after a report from a user being unable to withdraw 5k ETH from the bridge.

In a statement the FBI also said, 

Through our investigations, we were able to confirm Lazarus Group and APT38, cyber actors associated with (North Korea), are responsible for the theft.

Although this is not the first time that Lazarus Group has been accused of theft, in 2014 they were accused of hacking into Sony Pictures Entertainment as revenge for “The Interview” and they did this because this movie mocked the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. 

Besides this, in January also North Korean hackers were accused of stealing around $400-million worth of cryptocurrency. Chainalysis a blockchain data platform confirmed the cyberattack on the digital currency outlets last year.