The theft of $100 million from the Horizon bridge of American crypto company Harmony last June was carried out by two cyber groups linked to North Korea, the Lazarus Group and APT38, the Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed on Monday.
The gangs used a privacy protocol called Railgun on January 13 to launder approximately $60 million worth of Ethereum that had been stolen in the robbery in June, according to a statement from the FBI. Some of the stolen Ethereum was later transferred to other companies that deal in virtual assets and turned into bitcoin.
The FBI claimed that North Korea uses the theft and laundering of virtual currency to finance its ballistic missile and WMD(Weapons of Mass Destruction) programs.
The core software used by digital currencies like bitcoin and ether for transferring cryptocurrency across multiple blockchains, Horizon bridge, was reportedly the target of a robbery in June of last year, according to California-based Harmony.
Three online research firms were referenced by Reuters in June when it came to its conclusion that North Korean hackers were most likely in charge of the attack on Harmony.
Harmony creates non-fungible tokens and blockchains for peer-to-peer lending platforms that operate without traditional gatekeepers like banks. These platforms provide loans and other financial services.
