The infamous North Korean hacker crew dubbed “Lazarus Group” has reportedly stolen $882 million in cryptoassets since 2017, and is allegedly the most ‘successful’ crypto hacker organization ever.
As crypto crime has become a real threat to individual users and crypto exchange platforms, a new report by the leading crypto security firm Group-IB has detailed that Lazarus has stolen a total of $571 million in crypto since January of this year.
Spear Phishing Tactics
Group-IB is one of the leading crypto security companies in the world that routinely release reports in regards to ongoing crypto crime issues the industry faces.
Founded in 2003, and more appropriately known for their cyber security protection of the 2014 Sochi Olympics, the firm has now uncovered some disturbing figures about the North Korean group. The information from Group-IB was sourced from details of 14 different attacks on crypto exchanges since the start of the year. The findings have shown the Lazarus Group is one of the most successful crypto hacking groups out there.
The security firm’s report, first spotted by The Next Web, details that some of the most notorious hacking organizations in the world could turn their focus from banks to cryptoassets. To hack individuals and organizations, hackers are using spear phishing tactics, using malware embedded in spam documents. Once the target is compromised, the hackers look for cryptocurrency wallets and private keys to access them.
The state-sponsored Lazarus Group has been linked to hacking attempts dating as far back as 2009, and were also involved in stealing $80 million from the Bangladesh Bank in 2016. It is also theorized the group was involved in the Sony Pictures hack.
Focusing on Security
Group-IB released a report earlier this year that detailed the number of compromised crypto accounts had risen 369% since 2017. The security firm also pointed out that when interest in the crypto markets over the course of January heightened, so did hacking attempts.
At that time, Group-IB said that more than half of the malicious traffic came from the USA, while another 20% came from the Netherlands.
