Kim Jung Un orchestrating crypto heist to fund nuclear programme

The North Korean regime has struck again. This time committing major cyber hacks in broad-daylight, swooping off a sum of 230 million dollars from India's biggest crypto platform WazirX. But of course, the North Korean government didn't committed the crime themselves, but hid behind the hacker group Lazarus, who had previously committed many other crimes.

Breaking down the WazirX breach

Elliptic's analysis reveals that the crypto assets lost in the recent WazirX breach amounts to approximately $235 million. This loss encompasses over 200 different cryptocurrencies, including Shiba Inu, Ether, Matic, and PEPE. The thief has already swapped a number of stolen tokens for Ether, which is a common initial step taken during a typical laundering process.

WazirX was quick to jump into action, launching two bounty programs with a handsome reward for online investigators who are willing to help them catch the perpetrators. The first program, called-the track and freeze bounty, calls for anyone who can provide actionable intelligence leading to the freezing of the stolen funds. The second program calls on ethical hackers to help recover the stolen funds, offering them a 10% bounty on recovered assets.

Kim Jung Un's new pot of gold

This incident isn't North Korea's first foray into cybercrime. The Lazarus Group also orchestrated the 2014 Sony Pictures hack and previously Distributed Denial of Service, or DDoS, attacks against South Korean and US targets.

Some say that the North Koreans are tapping into a new wellspring of funds to finance their nuclear programme-crypto heists. While the regime has a record in drug trafficking, counterfeiting, and other illicit activities for fundraising, it seems that the biggest money pot in their hands is its cyber operations. Maybe this is the best way to fund their high rate of testing of nuclear weapons, which consumes a lot of funding.

North Korea stopping at nothing?

The brazen nature of the WazirX attack suggests North Korea's unwavering commitment to funding its nuclear weapons program. This incident highlights the potential link between the regime's ambitions and its use of cybercrime.