North Korean Hackers Pocketed More Than $100M in Atomic Wallet Hack

The North Korean group allegedly behind a hack which earlier this month focused Atomic Pockets have now pocketed over $100 million in stolen crypto, blockchain analytics agency Elliptic stated as we speak. 

Cybercriminals hacked self-custodial, decentralized Atomic Pockets on June 3, taking on the time $35 million-worth of digital tokens. 

Elliptic attributed the assault to cybercrime syndicate Lazarus Group, which is believed to have stolen over $2 billion in its prolific hacking. 

The quantity stolen has now elevated practically threefold—and Atomic Pockets is but to offer prospects a proof, Elliptic stated in a Tuesday weblog submit.

Estonia-based Atomic Pockets, which lets prospects retailer cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, final tweeted in regards to the hack on June 7, saying it had contracted blockchain analytics agency Chainalysis to hint the stolen funds. The Atomic Pockets crew would not seem to have communicated at throughout its Twitter account since sending that tweet. 

Elliptic stated Tuesday that it was freezing stolen funds. “Our crew has partnered with a number of investigators and exchanges all over the world to hint and freeze the stolen funds,” the agency stated. “This has led to over $1 million in stolen property being frozen.”

It added that hackers have since began utilizing sanctioned Russian crypto trade Garantex to launder the stolen property. 

Lazarus Group made headlines final 12 months when the U.S. Treasury Division sanctioned coin mixing app Twister Money. 

The Feds sanctioned the app as a result of they stated criminals, like state sponsored hacking Lazarus Group, have been utilizing it to launder soiled money. The group has additionally been linked to the $100 million Concord Bridge hack in June 2022 and the $190 million Nomad bridge hack only a month later. 

In December of final 12 months, stories started to flow into that Lazarus Group was posing as a enterprise capital agency in an try and unfold malware. Cybersecurity agency Kaspersky stated in a report that BlueNoroff, the identify it is given Lazarus Group, “created quite a few pretend domains impersonating enterprise capital firms and banks.”