The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has said that the North Korean hacking group "Lazarus" is involved in the crypto theft of $1.5 billion. Just a few days ago, 400,000 Ethereums were stolen from the crypto exchange platform "ByBit" and its value is about one and a half billion dollars, according to ByBit.
The incident of Ethereum theft has caused a stir in the crypto market . The price of crypto currency has been affected .
The price of Bitcoin, which reached 109,000 dollars per coin last month, has now continued to fall to 79,700 dollars. In what is seen as one of the biggest cryptocurrency thefts, the Lazarus group, which is said to be backed by the North Korean government, was suspected to be involved, and the FBI officially pleaded guilty on Thursday.
FBI alleges Lazarus Group systematically hacked crypto exchange platform Bybit's Ethereum wallet and stole crypto. This group is seen to be involved in various 'high-profile' cyber attacks around the world. The Lazarus group was involved in the 2014 Sony Pictures hack or the 2016 cyberheist at the Central Bank of Bangladesh.
The FBI has also called on the public to help identify and track down the stolen cryptocurrencies as the hacker moved the stolen Ethereum to a new address and sold it. The US Police Department has named the North Korean cybercrime group as 'Trader Traitor' and has also made public the address of the wallet where some of the coins stolen from ByBit have been collected . By doing this, the FBI expects to help identify hackers and prevent further transactions.
Bybit said a hacker group has launched a bounty program to recover stolen crypto. ByBit has announced a 10 percent bounty (reward) to those who can track the business or movement of the stolen crypto. The company has also claimed that it has succeeded in stopping the transactions of 1 million stolen so far.
