​FBI accuses hackers from the DPRK of hacking the Horizon cross-chain for $100 million

What’s new? The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has said that the North Korean hacker groups Lazarus and APT38 were behind the June 2022 hack and theft of $100 million from Horizon cross-chain on the Harmony network. According to the bureau, hackers used the RAILGUN protocol on January 13 to launder about $60 million worth of ETH and then convert the assets into BTC. Some of those funds were frozen in conjunction with some virtual asset service providers, and the hackers transferred the remaining bitcoins to 11 addresses.

Information on the FBI website

Harmony is a Layer 1 (L1) network built in the Ethereum ecosystem. The developers claim that on their network, transactions are executed in 2 seconds and fees are several times lower than on the main blockchain. The Horizon cross-chain bridge provides a link between the Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Bitcoin networks. As of January 24, the native token ONE is trading at $0,01963, having gained 6,57% in 24 hours.

What else did the FBI report? The agency said that the cybersecurity and virtual assets units, as well as the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), continue “to identify and disrupt North Korea’s theft and laundering of virtual currency, which is used to support North Korea’s ballistic missile and Weapons of Mass Destruction programs.”

In August, the US Treasury Department banned the Tornado Cash crypto mixer, claiming it was used by Lazarus hackers and linked to the DPRK’s nuclear program.

Back in June 2022, Elliptic analysts accused Lazarus hackers of hacking Horizon, noting that the exploit and money laundering features were similar to other incidents in which the group’s involvement was confirmed.

The network’s developers themselves are cooperating with the FBI to investigate the incident, and they have previously also offered the hackers $1 million to return the remaining funds and disclose details of the exploit. In September, the Harmony team unveiled a plan to compensate customers using the project’s reserves. In January, Binance and Huobi exchanges froze accounts with 124 BTC linked to the hack of the network.