The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has just made a claim against the APT38 and the Lazarus Group pertaining to a major hack.
According to the FBI, the hackers from these groups were responsible for carrying out a Harmony Bridge hack back in June 2022. As a result of the hack, the culprits were able to steal away $100 million worth of funds.
Initially, the FBI had shared what it felt about the entire operation. They claimed that they had doubts about the Lazarus Group because the way the hack was carried out led them to think that way.
They had a feeling just before they had begun with their investigation. However, their investigations into the matter have confirmed that the Lazarus Group was indeed involved in the hack.
As a result of the hack, the hackers were able to steal $100 million worth of funds from the Harmony Bridge.
Initially, many had blamed the Lazarus Group for being involved in the hack. However, the authorities did not want to jump to any conclusion until they had the confirmed evidence and had collected the relevant proof from their end.
Statement Issued by the FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has just issued a statement on January 24, where they have shared critical information related to the Harmony hack.
The FBI revealed that they were the primary agency that was closely monitoring the entire situation. They had been investigating the entire matter and had come to a clear conclusion.
They revealed that after gathering all the proof and evidence, they have come to the conclusion that the APT38 and the Lazarus Group were behind the hack.
They are the ones who are connected with the DPRK, whose cyber actors love to lure people and projects and exploit millions from them.
They have now confirmed that the hackers were able to steal away $100 million worth of virtual currencies and digital assets.
How did Harmony Get Hacked?
The hackers were able to find a flaw in the bridge that had been formed between the Horizon and the Ethereum networks.
The hackers were able to make full use of the security holes and were able to carry out their sweep. They were able to steal away funds in the form of a number of cryptocurrencies.
All of these cryptocurrencies were bridged between particular networks and were performing really well. A slight hiccup was able to grant hackers the opportunity to take full advantage and they hacked the tokens.
The hackers were able to move the funds not just in a single transaction. Instead, they decided to withdraw their funds in the form of 11 transactions.
This way, the hackers hid their addresses and traces so no one could go after them.
Hackers Moved $60 Million Worth of Crypto
The teams have revealed that the hackers were freely moving the funds from the receiving ends to the selling ends.
It was just January 2023 when the hackers started to move funds they had stolen from the Harmony Bridge. They reportedly made a transaction that was worth $60 million.
All of the funds that the hackers were moving were stolen from the Harmony Bridge. They used the RAILGUN protocol in order to carry out the shifting of the funds based on the Ethereum blockchain.
Hackers Tried Using Huobi
Binance, the largest crypto exchange was also looking into the problem as soon as possible. They have revealed that the hackers had also tried to play with the system in the Huobi exchange.
They used the exchange to transfer the funds. However, Binance was already monitoring the entire matter and they were quickly able to freeze the funds.
Huobi even managed to help Binance and Harmony in recovering funds from the addresses involved in the particular activities.
The hackers were able to move funds stored mainly in Ethereum and Bitcoin.
