Reports of a North Korean hacking group called the Lazarus Group being responsible for last week’s hack of Harmony Bridge. Harmony Bridge is a crypto service which lets crypto assets be traded between Harmony blockchain and other blockchains.
$100 million worth of crypto, including ether, tether and wrapped bitcoin was stolen on the morning of June 24th. Hackers in North Korea have become increasingly sophisticated over the years. An estimated $400 million in Ethereum were stolen in 2021. The 2022 figure till now has already surpassed last year’s number.
Stolen assets were converted to 85,837 ETH, soon after the hack. As per Elliptic, the hackers started sending some of the converted Ethereum through Tornado Cash, often used to launder illegal crypto. 41% of the total funds stolen or 35,000 ETH have been sent to Tordano Cash.
The Lazarus group was also responsible for the $635 million Ronin Bridge hack in March. It was possibly the largest in the DeFi space.
Other factors in the Harmony Bridge hack are also highlighted by Elliptic. Tornado Cash was also involved in the laundering of the Ronin Bridge funds. The timing of the Harmony Bridge theft also correlated with Asia-Pacific (APAC) nighttime hours.
North Korea is a world leader when it comes to crimes associated with crypto. There have been 15 cases of cyber theft amounting to $1.59 billion. But this portfolio of thieves has been hit by the recent market turmoil.