'Elite North Korean hackers' blamed for $6.3B Binance hack

jsw97

Their haul is over 20% of North Korea’s GDP.

sigmoid10

>Estimated total impact: ~$6.3B, with ~$3B frozen on-chain so far, in coordination with our blockchain partners I always find it amusing to read this. Why would you even bother with a decentralized currency that can move freely across the globe when some centralized institutions can always interfere in the way legacy banks used to do with your money? Either they are misguiding you about the core value of their product or their ability to execute traditional interventions in cases of theft. You can't have the conveniences of both at the same time.

fsflover

Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50296470

cedws

Random thought: when NK collapses, I wonder if there will be a rush to seize the crypto wallets. I guess the CIA will be there first.

boldaxolotl

Same unit as Bybit in Feb 2025 (TraderTraitor), and if the laptop reports are right, the same way in: one developer's machine. Bybit lost $1.5B through a compromised Safe{Wallet} dev box. Twenty months later the largest exchange in the world loses four times that, apparently the same way. I'd like to know what signing setup lets one engineer's laptop reach $6B

jdw64

It’s a pity. If he hadn’t been born in North Korea like that, he would have become a truly great programmer. My life is really hard and painful, but sometimes I think I’m better off than they are.

fhub

Sophisticated? Perhaps. But could also be run of the mill honey trap/romantic approach. Easier to slip by 2fas through a front door.

Sol-

How do they launder the coins generally? Given you traceable (most) cryptocurrency is by design, it seems you could sanction anyone who transacts with them? I understand it's likely not that simple, though.

pavlov

After long soul-searching, crypto has settled on two strong use cases: 1) unregulated gambling (a.k.a. "prediction markets"), 2) funding North Korea. Heartening to see the beautiful web3 vision come alive.

zb3

That's impressive, I wish they published writeups.. At this point I don't understand - why not do this officially? They're already sanctioned to death...

maxglute

North Korea could have the funniest softpower win if they setup a division to purely pirate and emulate Japanese console video games.

expedition32

Perfect crime. The kind of people holding crypto can't exactly go to the police. They'd have to show the receipts! There are two kinds of people who hate KYC: conspiracy cranks and criminals.

deadlast2

I think it has evaporated the wealth of many young investors also.

mac3n

of course it's 'elite'. sounds much better that way.