Hacking organizations 'Lazarus' and 'APT38' supported by the North Korean government were responsible for the loss of $100 million worth of Ethereum from Harmony Horizon in June 2022.
The funds and the seizure of stolen assets were reported to the authorities. The exploiters' activities closely resembled the attempt, which was undertaken on January 13, 2023, since more than $60 million was attempted to be laundered.
The Binance chain, Bitcoin, and Ethereum transfers are made possible through Harmony's Horizon Bridge. Numerous tokens worth $100,000,000 were taken from the network on June 23, 2022.
North Korean cybercriminals were actively shifting a portion of Harmony's Horizon bridge funds during the last weekend as the price of bitcoin approached $24,000. While several cryptocurrency exchanges instantly froze certain cash, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) claimed that some exchanges are not helpful in fighting crime, which made it easier to convert ETH to BTC.
According to reports, the APT38 was able to convert some of the $27 million in Ethers to Bitcoin and withdraw the money from exchanges. The Lazurus group has reportedly been shifting laundered money to a number of addresses in order to mask their true identity through multiple layers.
With the use of its Horizon Bridge, Harmony can transmit data to and from the Ethereum network, Binance Chain, and Bitcoin. On June 23, a number of tokens from the network valued at roughly $100 million were taken.
After the exploit, the Tornado Cash mixer processed 85,700 Ether, which was then deposited at various addresses. The hackers began transferring about $60 million of the stolen money via the Ethereum-based anonymity protocol RAILGUN on January 13. 350 addresses have been linked to the attack through numerous exchanges in an effort to escape detection, according to research by the cryptocurrency tracking tool MistTrack.
Cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance and Huobi have alerted authorities about stolen Harmony's Horizon Bridge funds by freezing them. This demonstrates how DeFi platforms and centralized exchanges are dependent on one another.
