Another $ 1.4 million in Geldern Geldern, which the Lazarus Group stolen, frozen by Binance, Huobi
Another $ 1.4 million in Geldern Geldern, which the Lazarus Group stolen, frozen by Binance, Huobi
It was over half a year since the Harmony bridge was broken, which means that hackers, which are believed to be part of the Lazarus group, were able to get away with around $ 100 million in cryptocurrencies at the time of their theft.
Several refund attempts
Almost $ 91 million of these funds have so far experienced payout attempts. During the recent attempt to wash the stolen funds, cryptos worth around $ 27 million were postponed. The operation was discovered by security researchers, although it is unclear how much of the identified amount - if at all - was confiscated.
However, the stock exchanges do what they can to prevent the river of illegal funds, despite the resurrection of blenders, a sanctioned crypto mixer, which has now been supposedly brought back as a "Sinbad".
continued coordination
About a month ago Elliptic, Huobi and Binance Coordinated to freeze $ 2.5 million at the time. Apparently the cooperation continued, which could be frozen by a further $ 1.4 million in cryptocurrencies on February 14th.
exchange @bony and @Huobiglobal today frozen with $ 1.4 million, which were stolen by the North Korean Lazarus group. This was made possible thanks to information from the real-time investigation tools from Elliptic and a quick reaction of the receiving stock exchanges.
-elliptisch (@Elliptisch) 14. February 2023
The exact cryptocurrencies were not mentioned, only the dollar value.
elliptic, a blockchain-focused AML and compliance service provider, forwarded information about stolen cryptocurrencies that were pursued on accounts on the two trading platforms. The security teams of the two stock exchanges then quickly froze.
According to Simone Maini, CEO of Elliptic, it is the obligation of companies in the entire blockchain area to do everything in their power to prevent crypto from becoming a safe port for cybercriminals.
"Today money laundering was discovered and stolen funds in connection with North Korea were frozen in real time. As an industry, we have the power and responsibility to prevent digital assets from becoming a refuge for money launderers and sanction backgrounds, and ensuring that they are a power of good."
The examination of Elliptic pursued the funds in 58 blockchain walls and again demonstrated that not even crypto-mixers and state supervisory authorities can not get out of the socket with sufficient determination and know-how. The funds had remained inactive until a few days ago when unusual activities made the investigators of Elliptic aware of it.
With a bit of luck, the millions that were washed at the beginning of this month and discovered by security researcher ZachxBt were also frozen - however, no information was offered by crypto exchange on this topic, be it due to concerns about cyber security or because the information was simply discovered too late..