FBI Confirms North Korean Hackers Stole $1.5B from Bybit

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a security advisory confirming that North Korean hackers were responsible for a massive cryptocurrency theft. The Bybit exchange became the target of the attack, which resulted in digital asset losses amounting to $1.5 billion.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has confirmed that North Korean hackers were responsible for stealing $1.5 billion in digital assets from the Bybit cryptocurrency exchange earlier this year.

The agency also urged crypto service providers to block transactions with hacker-controlled addresses and prevent the laundering of stolen crypto.

The FBI said in a security advisory that its teams had identified TraderTraitor, a group of cybercriminals operating out of North Korea, as the culprits of the hack.

The hackers infiltrated the Bybit exchange on February 21, and stole assets worth billions of dollars. The stolen assets were then converted into Bitcoin and moved through hundreds of blockchain addresses, where they were further mixed and distributed in an attempt to launder them before converting them into fiat currency.

The FBI said that cryptocurrency service providers should take immediate action to set blocking rules for any transactions using these addresses under hacker control.

This is not the first time that North Korean hackers have targeted cryptocurrency platforms in a bid to steal funds.

Earlier this year, Chainalysis estimated that North Korean hackers stole around $663 million in cryptocurrency from blockchain protocols and user wallets in 2022.

The agency said that a vast majority of the stolen cryptocurrency—about 58%-—was stolen from protocols, while 42% was stolen directly from users’ wallets.

The stolen funds were laundered through a variety of means, including mixing services and privacy coins. Ultimately, the hackers were able to cash out about 20% of the stolen funds. The remaining 80% of the stolen cryptocurrency was still in the hackers’ possession at the time of the report.

According to Chainalysis, the cryptocurrency stolen by North Korean hackers was used to fund the country’s missile and nuclear weapons programs. The U.S. and other nations have imposed sanctions on North Korea in a bid to deter its cybercriminal activities.