The United States has linked “Biggest Cryptocurrency Hack Ever and the hackers of the Lazarus group, “controlled by North Korea’s main intelligence service”reports the BBC.
In March, an intrusion into the Axie Infinity application from the start-up Sky Mavis, “where you can earn cryptocurrency by playing or trading avatars”had brought its authors 615 million dollars (569 million euros), recalls the British public media.
In a statement released Thursday, April 14, the FBI gave the conclusion of its investigation:
“The Lazarus group and APT38, cyber actors associated with [la Corée du Nord]are responsible for this theft.”
The US Treasury Department immediately added to its list of North Korean sanctions an address linked to the hacking of the platform, specifies Motherboard. The address in question holds nearly 148,000 “ethereums” (a cryptocurrency), worth 445 million dollars (412 million euros), found the site on American technology.
The breach is still there
Since Vietnamese start-up Sky Mavis was hacked in early March, the breach has not been closed. The company, which announced to its users that “the FBI attributed the intrusion to the Lazarus group, based in North Korea”, explains that she makes “additions of security measures” to redeploy its service “by the end of the month”.
Piracy “was one of the biggest thefts in crypto history, and prompted crypto-asset exchanges and investors to step in to cover the losses,” recalls the specialized media.
North Korea is suspected to be the source of many cryptocurrency hacks. Last year, this activity would have brought in 400 million dollars (370 million euros), according to the company specializing in blockchain Chainalysis.