Lazarus Group carried out Harmony’s Horizon Protocol attack

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) confirmed on January 23rd that the Lazarus Group was responsible for last year’s attack on Harmony’s Horizon Protocol.

FBI Said Ongoing investigations confirm that the Lazarus group (and subunit or overlapping group APT-38) were involved in attacks on Horizon. Lazarus Group and its affiliates are sponsored by the North Korean government.

The FBI added that it was working to recover crypto stolen by the North Korean group in order to deprive the country of funding for its missile and weapons of mass destruction development.

Railgun Money Laundering Attempts

Last week, more than $60 million in cryptocurrency related to this attack began moving through Ethereum-based privacy network Railgun in a money laundering attempt.

The FBI said those responsible for the theft transferred the ill-gotten gains to various cryptocurrency exchanges and converted those assets into Bitcoin. The agency said it has frozen some of the stolen funds with the help of related crypto exchanges. The attackers also said they moved unfrozen funds to 11 other addresses.

The FBI has not specified which exchanges helped freeze the accounts, but reports suggest that Binance and Huobi recovered just under $3 million in funds in mid-January.

horizon hack

Horizon was originally exploited for $100 million in June 2022. Lazarus Group’s involvement in the attack was not confirmed until today, but the Lazarus Group has been a prime suspect since the Horizon attack was first reported last summer. Research from analytics firm Elliptic suggested that fact shortly after the attack took place.

Lazarus Group has also been involved in other crypto hacks, including attacks on the Ronin Network and various Japanese blockchain companies.