Authorities link Axie Infinity hack to North Korean Lazarus hacking group
According to the FBI, the infamous cybercrime group Lazarus has been implicated in the March Axie Infinity exploit that saw $625 million taken from the game's blockchain bridge. Lazarus are a criminal group with strong ties to North Korea, and are suspected of being behind infamous cyberattacks including the WannaCry ransomware that impacted a wide number of industries including hospitals and manufacturing, as well as legislative and justice systems. The U.S. Treasury department has added the crypto wallet that received the stolen funds to its sanctions list, which may make it substantially harder for the attackers to withdraw the money. The wallet still contains around 150,000 ETH, valued at around $445 million, but has been slowly siphoning it out to various other wallets, exchanges, and tumblers over the past weeks.
- "Community Alert: Ronin Validators Compromised", Ronin Newsletter
- U.S. Department of Treasury announcement showing the sanctioned wallet address
- Attacker wallet on Etherscan