{"id":39050,"date":"2025-02-27T01:53:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T07:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=39050"},"modified":"2025-02-27T05:14:27","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T11:14:27","slug":"fbi-accuses-north-korean-backed-hackers-of-stealing-1-5-billion-in-crypto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=39050","title":{"rendered":"FBI accuses North Korean-backed hackers of stealing $1.5 billion in crypto"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ROME — The FBI has accused North Korean-linked hackers of conducting one of the largest thefts of cryptocurrency publicly known<\/a>, seizing some $1.5 billion worth of ethereum from a Dubai-based firm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The theft earlier this month targeting Bybit, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, represents yet another involving a team of hackers identified by the U.S. government by the names TraderTraitor and the Lazarus Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hackers steal cryptocurrency \u201cthrough the dissemination of cryptocurrency trading applications that were modified to include malware that facilitates theft of cryptocurrency,\u201d the FBI has said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an online public service announcement late Wednesday, the FBI said it believed the North Korean-backed hackers were \u201cresponsible for the theft.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTraderTraitor actors are proceeding rapidly and have converted some of the stolen assets to Bitcoin and other virtual assets dispersed across thousands of addresses on multiple blockchains,\u201d the FBI said in its announcement. \u201cIt is expected these assets will be further laundered and eventually converted to fiat currency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

North Korean state media has not acknowledged either the theft or the FBI accusation. Pyongyang’s mission to the United Nations in Geneva did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, North Korea has stolen an estimated $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency<\/a> and other virtual assets in the past five years, according to South Korea’s spy agency. It represents a rare source of badly needed foreign currency to support its fragile economy and fund its nuclear program in the face of intense U.N. sanctions and North Korea’s strict border closures during the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A U.N. experts panel separately said it was investigating 58 suspected cyberattacks by North Korea between 2017 to 2023 that saw some $3 billion stolen to \u201creportedly help to fund the country\u2019s development of weapons of mass destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bybit co-founder and CEO, Ben Zhou, acknowledged the FBI’s announcement in a post on the social platform X by linking to a website offering $140 million in bounties for tracking the stolen crypto and getting it frozen by other exchanges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bybit has said a routine transfer of ethereum, one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, from a so-called \u201ccold\u201d or offline wallet was \u201cmanipulated\u201d by an attacker who transferred the crypto to an unidentified address. The blockchain analytics firm Certik has described the theft as \u201cthe largest breach\u201d in the history of blockchain transactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The theft has seen overall crypto prices drop in recent days<\/a> as investors in part have been spooked by the hack despite the industry getting a boost from the election of U.S. President Donald Trump. Industry leader Bitcoin traded over $82,000 a coin on Thursday, down from high of over $100,000 a month ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

abcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ROME — The FBI has accused North Korean-linked hackers of conducting one of the largest thefts of cryptocurrency publicly known, seizing some $1.5 billion worth of ethereum from a Dubai-based firm. The theft earlier this month targeting Bybit, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, represents yet another involving a team of hackers identified by the U.S. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":39051,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[419,2756,2086],"class_list":["post-39050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-fbi","tag-korean","tag-north"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39050"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39052,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39050\/revisions\/39052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}