The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned Tuesday that attackers linked to North Korea may seek to cash in more than $40 million worth of stolen cryptocurrency.
law enforcement to cause Blockchain activity against adversaries tracked by the US government is tracked as TraderTraitor, also known as Jade Sleet.
An investigation conducted by the FBI found that the group moved approximately 1,580 bitcoins from multiple crypto heists in the past 24 hours and is currently storing those funds in six different wallets.
North Korea is known for blurring the lines between cyber warfare, espionage and financial crime. TraderTraitor, in particular, has been implicated in a series of attacks targeting blockchain and cryptocurrency exchanges with the aim of looting digital assets to generate illicit revenue in sanctioned countries.
This includes the June 22, 2023, theft of $60 million in cryptocurrency from Alphapo. The $37 million cryptocurrency stolen from CoinsPaid on June 22, 2023. And then there was the $100 million cryptocurrency theft from an atomic wallet on June 2, 2023, and last year’s attacks targeting Skye Mavis’ Ronin Network and Harmony Horizon Bridge.
A share of this cluster overlaps with another North Korean group called APT38 (aka BlueNoroff or Stardust Chollima), which is part of the larger constellation of Lazarus. Google-owned Mandiant also last month connected TraderTraitor to UNC4899, the hacking group allegedly involved in the late June 2023 JumpCloud hack.
according to data North Korean hackers have stolen more than $2 billion in cryptocurrency as part of a string of 30 attacks since 2018, with $200 million stolen in 2023 alone, according to data compiled by blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs. presumed to have been created.
“The private sector should investigate the blockchain data associated with these addresses and be vigilant against transactions directly with or derived from the addresses,” the FBI said.