The FBI has announced that the North Korean-affiliated Lazarus Group is behind the recent security breach at the cryptocurrency casino Stake, which resulted in the theft of $41 million in digital assets. This revelation came to light on Thursday, a few days after the incident occurred.
Stake casino initially recognized the activity as “unauthorized transfers.” The company promptly assured its users that an internal investigation was initiated right after the breach was identified.
Based on their investigative findings, the FBI has shared a list of several digital wallet addresses believed to be holding the misappropriated assets. According to the agency, the group managed to divert the cryptocurrency through several networks, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon, and Binance Smart Chain.
Moreover, the FBI identified similarities between this incident and other recent attacks attributed to the Lazarus Group, including the substantial heists involving Atomic Wallet and the entities Alphapo and CoinsPaid. This group has reportedly been linked to a series of significant crypto-related thefts over the past few years, accumulating stolen digital assets estimated to be over $2 billion, as reported by analytics company Elliptic.
In a previous incident, the U.S. Treasury Department associated the Lazarus Group with a significant breach involving the Ronin Network, which affected the play-to-earn crypto game, Axie Infinity, leading to a loss of $622 million, one of the largest amounts in a crypto exploit to date.
In efforts to conceal their operations, the Lazarus Group has utilized the coin-mixing protocol Tornado Cash, a service which has faced scrutiny and sanctions from the U.S. Treasury Department for purportedly aiding in the laundering of $7 billion in cryptocurrency. Last year, the service faced prohibitions reinforced by a federal court ruling in the United States.
Further complications arose when Roman Storm, one of the co-founders of the protocol, was arrested by the U.S. Justice Department in August. Storm is now facing several charges, including conspiracy to launder money and violation of sanctions, amidst a series of allegations against Tornado Cash and its operations.
Source: Decrypt.co
