North Korean Hackers Threatened Bithumb Exchange With a $16M Ransom Amid the 2017 Data Breach, Says Report

A new report commissioned by the U.S. secret services unveiled what happened behind the attack launched by North Korean hackers against a South Korean crypto exchange. The case is about a breach on June 29, 2017, which exposed data tied to over 30,000 customers stemming from Bithumb.

Hackers Threatened to ‘Destroy’ Data and Cryptos Stolen

As indicated by Maeil Kyungjae, the U.S. specialists tracked down that North Korean programmers gain admittance to individual information and assets from clients at that point requested a payment installment subsequently. The blackmailers focused on the crypto trade Bithumb by asking them for 20 billion won ($16 million).

Additionally, danger entertainers are likewise blamed for sending malevolent code through counterfeit employment forms to Bithumb representatives. It was done apparently during a recruiting season that the organization had over that year.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) teamed up with the South Korean experts in making the journalist requests looking into the issue. On the payoff note, programmers compromised Bithumb to "sell or obliterate the client's virtual cash except if a specific sum is given."

Albeit the name of the cybercriminals wasn't determined in the U.S. security report, Lazarus Group could probably be the geniuses of the assault.

Indeed, the neighborhood news source related them with past critical cyberattacks, whose authorships are ascribed in the prosecutions recorded by the U.S. Branch of Justice (DOJ) to programmers "having a place with the North Korean Reconnaissance Office," which are all the more explicitly Lazarus Group.

Lazarus Group Responsible for Major Cyber-Heists Against Crypto Exchanges Globally

As of late, as Bitcoin.com News revealed in February 2021, the U.S. DOJ unlocked new charges against the North Korean state-supported programmers.

The programmers are supposedly liable for taking more than $1.3 billion in digital currencies and fiat during facilitated digital heists in the course of the most recent couple of years.

Law requirement uncovered a case identified with an anonymous Slovenian crypto organization. Per the court reports, the programmers partook in the burglary of $75 million from a firm in December 2017.

They were additionally associated with a $24.9 million burglary of another crypto business in September 2018, however this time in Indonesia.

Source: https://news.bitcoin.com/