Latest news with #NorthKorea-linked
CNBC
6 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Crypto theft is booming as criminals increasingly turn to physical attacks
The value of cryptocurrencies stolen by criminals surged in the first six months of 2025 after a high-profile hack and a wave of physical attacks targeting crypto holders and their relatives. So far this year, $2.17 billion has been stolen from crypto services — already eclipsing the $1.87 billion of funds stolen from platforms in 2024 — and this is expected to reach $4 billion by the end of 2025, according to a report published Thursday by blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis. Overall, the combined value of digital tokens stolen from both crypto platforms and individuals hit more than $2.8 billion and is already approaching the $3.4 billion in crypto stolen last year. The bulk of the funds stolen from services came from February's cyberattack on Dubai crypto exchange Bybit, which saw North Korea-linked hackers make off with $1.5 billion. It's estimated to be the largest crypto heist in history. However, the rise in stolen crypto assets was also driven by a spike in attacks on individual crypto wallets. Personal wallets accounted for over 23% of total thefts, with attackers increasingly turning to physical violence and coercion to access funds, Chainalysis said. In January, David Balland, a co-founder of crypto wallet firm Ledger, was kidnapped with his wife from their home in central France. Before they were freed, the attackers cut off Balland's finger and sent footage of it to his fellow co-founder Eric Larcheveque demanding ransom money. Separately, in May, the father of a crypto entrepreneur was taken in broad daylight by four men wearing ski masks. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of several million euros and cut off one of the man's fingers. He was freed by police days later. Eric Jardine, cybercrimes research lead at Chainalysis, told CNBC that the rise in crypto-related thefts was primarily being driven by increasing crypto adoption and price appreciation. "Adoption means there are more services and users in the crypto ecosystem, making thefts more common. Price appreciation means that services and individuals in crypto have more USD value to lose, even if the total assets stolen are relatively constant over time," Jardine said via email. Jardine suggested that the uptick in attacks on individual crypto holders could relate to the fact that crypto trading services are beefing up their security. "If services become better at security, malicious actors will potentially move to targeting individual wallet holders and trade off a single large-scale heist in favor of a large number of smaller-scale victimizations," he said. Meanwhile, rising wealth accumulated through holdings of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin has resulted in a rise in crypto influencers flaunting their lifestyle on social media platforms. Jardine stressed it was important not to blame the victims of physical crypto-related attacks, adding that "showy displays of wealth can quite obviously attract the attention of a bad actor when compared to a more modest outward facing lifestyle."
Business Insider
15-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Tornado Cash was a 'giant washing machine' for North Korea's dirty crypto, feds tell Roman Storm jury
Is Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm just a smart and selfless software engineer? Or is the 34-year-old Russian expat the go-to money launderer for the world's biggest scammers and hackers? A federal jury in Manhattan heard two very different stories in opening statements Tuesday for Storm's $1 billion money laundering conspiracy trial. Prosecutors pointed to three of the biggest crypto heists in recent years — including North Korea's $600 million hack attack on the online gaming platform Axie Infinity. Each time, the criminals hid their stolen money by running it through Tornado Cash, prosecutor Special US Attorney Kevin Gerard Mosley told the seven-woman, five-man jury. Storm's popular online tool "mixes" cryptocurrency, scrambling transactions to make them "basically untraceable and virtually impossible for law enforcement or anyone else to track," Mosley told the jury. "The defendant was running and profiting from a giant washing machine for dirty money, and he knew it," the prosecutor said. "He even marketed Tornado Cash as a washing machine," he added. "In fact," he promised jurors, "you will see a photo of the defendant wearing a T-shirt showing a washing machine with the Tornado Cash logo on it." Prosecutors say Storm kept laundering hundreds of millions of dollars for hackers with the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group even after such transactions were banned under US and global sanctions. "Criminals could avoid being tracked by running their money through the defendant's washing machine," Mosley said of Tornado Cash, a so-called crypto "mixing" tool that lets users deposit and withdraw crypto from a shared pool, obscuring the identities on either end of the transaction. "It would be mixed up with other crypto," Mosley said of the hackers' criminal proceeds, "so it would come out looking clean." Storm tried to cover his tracks after the Lazarus Group was sanctioned, the prosecutor said, by removing a single software control "switch" that could be used to shut off just one part of the washing machine. "He did that so he could pretend the whole washing machine was out of his control," while continuing to reap millions in profits, the prosecutor said. But in fact, Storm was still "running the whole laundromat," he added. "He had the keys to the front door, he paid the gas and electric bills, he still said, 'We're open for business.'" In her own opening statement, defense attorney Keri Curtis Axel countered that Storm is just a privacy advocate who wrote some very useful code. Tornado Cash was backed by US investors, and was built for perfectly legitimate purposes, she told the jury. "Roman had nothing to do with the hackers and scammers — he didn't want them to use Tornado Cash," she said. "The overwhelming majority of people who used it were normal people using it for their own financial privacy, which is the purpose that Roman intended." As for that T-shirt? The one with the Tornado Cash logo imposed over a washing machine? "He wore it at a reputable tech conference in Boston in 2019," Axel said. "And people of the jury, I want you to keep in mind it's just a T-shirt — worn in poor taste." "It's like a comic strip or a meme. It was joke," she said. "It was not evidence of a crime." The trial is expected to last about a month and to feature both hackers and victims among the government's witnesses.
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
ATOM Plunges 6% as North Korea Links Trigger Security Concerns
The discovery of a North Korea-linked developer who contributed to Cosmos code between 2022-2024 has triggered enhanced security measures, while major exchanges expand staking options for ATOM holders despite market pressure. ATOM is currently trading at $4.086 after losing 5.52% of its value over the past 24 hours. Technical analysis A sharp sell-off occurred during 22:00-23:00 hours on June 16th with exceptionally high volume (1.4M+), establishing resistance at $4.29. Support emerged around $4.06-$4.07 with increasing volume, suggesting potential stabilization. Overall momentum remains bearish with lower highs forming across multiple timeframes. A notable recovery occurred in the last hour, climbing from $4.077 to $4.084 (0.17% increase). Significant bullish momentum between 13:24-13:30 saw ATOM surge from $4.076 to $4.096 on elevated volume. The hourly close at $4.084 suggests stabilization above the $4.07 support level. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Industry leaders ask Trump to halt Biden-era 'lawless campaign'
Leaders from the crypto industry have urged President Donald Trump to discontinue the Department of Justice's (DOJ) "lawless campaign" from the Joe Biden era to criminalize developers who create open-source software. In particular, the group has urged the Trump administration to stop the prosecution of Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm by the Southern District of New York (SDNY). The DeFi Education Fund, a crypto advocacy group, has written a letter to the White House's crypto czar David Sacks, urging President Trump to "take immediate action" to halt Storm's prosecution. The SDNY charged Storm and Roman Semenov, both co-founders of the crypto mixer Tornado Cash, on Aug. 23, 2023, for allegedly conspiring to commit money laundering and violate sanctions by creating, operating, and promoting Tornado Cash. Earlier, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Tornado Cash on Aug. 8, 2022, alleging that the North Korea-linked notorious Lazarus hacking group had used it to launder stolen crypto assets worth $455 million. The mixer facilitated laundering of crypto assets worth over $7 billion, the OFAC claimed. Storm has decried the charges against him, saying that the "fatally flawed" indictment should be dismissed on several grounds, including for violating the First Amendment on free speech. He awaits his trial scheduled for mid-July. "This kind of legal environment does not just chill innovation — it freezes it; it empowers politically-motivated enforcement and puts every open-source developer at risk, regardless of industry," the DeFi Education Fund's letter read. Though the group praised Trump's pro-crypto steps, such as his executive order on the strategic Bitcoin reserve, it asked the president to stop the prosecution of developers; otherwise, his goal to "make America the crypto capital of the planet" can't be realized. By the time of writing this article, over 200 people have signed the letter. Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam, Multicoin Capital Managing Partner Kyle Samani, Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang, Blockchain Association CEO Kristin Smith, and Strangelove founder Jack Zampolin are among the signatories.
Kyodo News
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Kyodo News
Kyodo News Digest: May 15, 2025
KYODO NEWS - 1 hour ago - 09:00 | All, World, Japan The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News. ---------- Defense force trainer jet with 2 crew crashes in central Japan lake TOKYO - An Air Self-Defense Force training jet with two personnel aboard crashed into a large reservoir shortly after takeoff from a base near Nagoya, central Japan, the government said Wednesday. The ASDF said it is working to confirm the situation involving the T-4 jet, which disappeared from radar two minutes after departing Komaki Air Base, also in Aichi Prefecture, around 3:06 p.m. en route to a base in southwestern Japan. ---------- Japan inspects U.S. Tokyo base over suspected PFAS chemical leak TOKYO - The Japanese government on Wednesday conducted a second on-site inspection of the U.S. Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo over a possible leak of so-called PFAS chemicals, which may pose risks to human health. A similar action was carried out in December amid growing public concern after the United States reported a possible leakage of water containing PFAS from the firefighting training area following heavy rainfall in late August. ---------- Japan set to fully cover childbirth costs possibly from April 2026 TOKYO - Japan's health ministry is set to eliminate out-of-pocket payments associated with child delivery, possibly from April next year, to address the country's declining birthrate. One proposed approach in the policy approved Wednesday by a panel of experts involves fully covering expenses for normal deliveries under the public medical insurance system. ---------- North Korean hacker group conducting cyberattacks via Russia: report TOKYO - Some cyberattacks by a North Korea-linked hacker group targeting IT professionals worldwide were carried out from or via Russia's Far East, according to a recent report by a major internet security firm. The group's use of Russia's more developed internet infrastructure comes amid growing ties between the two countries following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Trend Micro Inc. noted. ---------- U.S., China slash most new tariffs following high-level talks WASHINGTON - The United States and China on Wednesday slashed most of their recent new tariffs on each other's imports and suspended part of the so-called reciprocal duties for 90 days, in line with a deal struck during high-level trade talks over the weekend in Switzerland. Because of what U.S. President Donald Trump called a "total reset" with China, his administration cut the tariffs it had imposed on the Asian economy under his second presidency to 30 percent from 145 percent. China, meanwhile, reduced its retaliatory tariffs on the United States to 10 percent from 125 percent. ---------- Japan sets 5-year goal of 1% annual real wage growth via investment TOKYO - The government on Wednesday set a five-year goal of achieving annual inflation-adjusted wage growth of 1 percent across Japan through 60 trillion yen ($408 billion) in public-private investment aimed at improving productivity. The plan mapped out by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's government focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises, which account for a large share of Japan's workforce, and comes as many consumers struggle with sharp price hikes that have outpaced pay increases. ---------- Sony expects net profit to fall 13% in FY 2025 on U.S. tariff impact TOKYO - Sony Group Corp. said Wednesday that its net profit in the year through next March is expected to fall 12.9 percent, hit by higher U.S. tariffs, after posting a record 1.14 trillion yen ($7.8 billion) for fiscal 2024 on the back of growth in its game and music segments. In the current fiscal year, net profit is projected to decline to 930 billion yen, with operating profit forecast to edge up 0.3 percent to 1.28 trillion yen, after factoring in a 100 billion yen hit attributed to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs. ---------- Bag with inflammable tube falls from U.S. forces chopper in Okinawa NAHA, Japan - A bag containing an inflammable signal flame tube fell from a U.S. military helicopter over the Motobu peninsula in northern Okinawa Prefecture in Japan on Tuesday, the local Defense Ministry bureau said. In Tokyo, Japan's top government spokesman said Wednesday that no damage has been reported following the incident. Video: Lilac flowers in Hokkaido
