North Korean hacker group seizes 2 trillion won in virtual assets, cashing out at least 400 billion won - South Korean report

Hackers believed to be linked to North Korea have succeeded in cashing out at least $300 million (approximately 44.1 billion yen), the UK's BBC reported on the 9th (local time).
On the 21st of last month, the North Korean hacking group "Lazarus Group" hacked into the virtual currency exchange "Bybit", stealing 1.5 billion, the largest amount in history.
The hackers then stole one of the Ethereum wallets, which contained $2.2 billion in cryptocurrency. Bybit then offered a bounty to stop them from cashing out the stolen Ethereum.
So far, Bybit has successfully identified and frozen $40 million in funds, but has lost track of $300 million, or about 20% of the funds.
This means that recovering the funds will be difficult, the BBC noted. Experts say North Korea's expertise in hacking and money laundering could make it difficult to recover the remaining funds.
"North Korea has a very closed system and economy, and it is vulnerable to hacking and money laundering," said Dorit Doll of cybersecurity firm Check Point.
"We've built a successful industry around the goal of cleaning up the internet," he said, adding that he isn't "concerned about the negative perception of cybercrime."
Tom Robinson, co-founder of cryptocurrency research firm Elliptic
Ng said North Korean hackers operate almost around the clock and that the cash could be used for military development.
"Every minute counts for hackers trying to disrupt financial flows," he said.
"Their methods are very sophisticated," he said, noting that of all criminals involved in cryptocurrency, North Korea "is the best at laundering cryptocurrency money." He added, "They have automated tools and years of experience.
"It seems that they have a room that can only accommodate people who are dedicated to this work, who have experience," he said. "Looking at their activities, they only have a few hours of rest each day, and they probably work in shifts.
"We can see that they are converting virtual currency into cash," he said. North Korea has never directly admitted that it is behind the Lazarus Group. However, the international community has been quick to point out that North Korea is involved in virtual currency hacking.
The Ethereum leak from the cryptocurrency exchange Upbit in 2019 and the Ronin Network leak in 2022 are examples of this.
This incident, as well as the 2023 Atomic Wallet cryptocurrency leak, are both presumed to have been perpetrated by organizations linked to North Korea.