North Korean Hackers Are Winning. Is the Crypto Industry Ready to Stop Them? - Ep. 789

$1.5 billion gone in an instant. And what’s worse, to fund a nuclear weapons program.
The largest crypto hack in history just hit Bybit, and the culprit is the infamous North Korean hacking group, Lazarus. Known for some of the most sophisticated cyber heists ever, they often use social engineering tactics and start by tricking low level employees. Although they can often wait to launder funds, in the case of Bybit they started right away.
How did this happen? Could it have been prevented? And what does this mean for the security of the entire crypto industry?
Taylor Monahan, security at MetaMask, and Jonty, a senior investigator at zeroShadow, talk all about it.
Show highlights:

2:53 Taylor’s and Jonty’s backgrounds and why they are relevant to this discussion

6:06 What the mechanics of the hack were

13:03 How Lazarus usually operates and the tactic of blind signing

17:11 Jonty’s important tips for people handling large amounts of crypto

23:45 How Bybit was able to say almost immediately that their other assets were secure

29:02 How much exchanges typically hold in each cold wallet

32:00 Why the evidence of the hack points to North Korean group Lazarus

41:01 Why North Korean hackers don’t care if their attack is linked to them

49:30 How Lazarus typically social engineers its hacks

53:48 Why Jonty thinks the industry needs a serious upgrade in terms of security

58:08 How the funds get laundered in such cases and what the industry can do

1:09:54 The chances Lazarus actually makes money from the hack

1:15:34 How DeFi protocols should approach this problem

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Mantle

Bitwise

Guests:

Taylor Monahan, Security at MetaMask

Jonty, a senior investigator at zeroShadow

Links

Previous coverage on Unchained about North Korean hackers:

How North Koreans Infiltrated the Crypto Industry to Fund the Regime

Why North Korea Is Interested in Cryptocurrency

Yeonmi Park on Why Doing Business With North Korea Is Like Buying a Ticket to a Concentration Camp

GitHub - pcaversaccio/safe-tx-hashes-util: bash script that checks that the Safe transaction that you are signing is the one that you intend to sign

Cointelegraph: Crypto exchange eXch denies laundering Bybit’s hacked funds

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