https://therecord.media/crypto-north-korea-theft-kelp

A theft over the weekend of nearly $300 million worth of cryptocurrency has been attributed to hackers from North Korea, as the industry grapples with the fallout of a wide-ranging incident involving multiple prominent platforms. 

The attack began on Saturday afternoon when blockchain security firms reported $290 million leaving the crypto platform Kelp. The company confirmed the incident and paused activity while an investigation was conducted. 

Cyber sleuths traced the incident back to LayerZero, a cryptocurrency infrastructure developer behind a popular messaging tool allowing decentralized apps to communicate and transfer assets back and forth.

...

LayerZero said the attack was isolated to Kelp and blamed the incident on how Kelp is set up.

...

LayerZero went on to explain that the attackers were able to “manipulate or poison” downstream infrastructure by compromising systems the company relies on to verify transactions. The company said the attackers’ sophisticated tactics prevented security monitoring tools from noticing anomalies.

In order to complete the heist, the hackers also launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on backup systems that may have been able to stop the theft. The tools used to carry out the attack were built to self-destruct once the hackers had finished.

...

If confirmed, the $290 million theft would be yet another blockbuster cryptocurrency robbery launched by hackers from North Korea. Three weeks ago, alleged North Korean groups stole $290 million from the Drift crypto platform in another sophisticated operation involving fake companies, alleged actors and more.

North Korea has waged an unprecedented assault on the crypto industry for more than five years, stealing vast sums each year that U.S. officials say is used to fund Pyongyang’s military weapons program.

The country’s government stole more than $2 billion in similar attacks last year and brought in $3 billion from attacks between 2017 and 2023, according to United Nations investigators.