North Korea said to be responsible for Harmony Horizon hack
State-affiliated hacker group Lazarus is allegedly connected to the US$100 million hack on Harmony Protocol’s Horizon cross-chain bridge, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said.
See related article: Horizon’s US$100 mln crypto hack prompts FBI investigation
Fast facts
The attack on Harmony resembled previous hacks attributed to the Lazarus Group, such as exploiting multi-signature wallet keys, extensive use of Tornado Cash, a service that makes it harder to trace crypto, and preying on decentralized finance (DeFi) services in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, Elliptic said.
Harmony Protocol is a project based in California but its core team members have ties to the APAC region.
More than US$100 million worth of crypto was drained from Horizon Bridge, Harmony said on its verified Twitter handle on the morning of June 24, Asia time.
Since June 27, the hacker has moved at least US$39 million in Ether to Tornado Cash, according to the blockchain analytics firm.
In April, the U.S. Treasury said North Korea-backed Lazarus Group was behind the US$622 million hack of the Ronin sidechain, on which runs the popular blockchain game Axie Infinity.
In May, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned virtual currency mixer Blender.io (Blender) for allegedly helping North Korea hide crypto theft proceeds.
See related article: US Treasury says prioritize sanctioning North Korea for crypto hacking