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SEOUL, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- North Korean hackers were behind the theft of $1.5 billion of virtual assets from cryptocurrency exchange Bybit last week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said, pulling off what is being described as the biggest heist in history.
The Pyongyang-sponsored hacker group known as Lazarus was behind the Feb. 21 theft, the agency said Wednesday, using spearphishing techniques and malware-laced cryptocurrency applications in a campaign the FBI refers to as "TraderTraitor."
"TraderTraitor actors are proceeding rapidly and have converted some of the stolen assets to Bitcoin and other virtual assets dispersed across thousands of addresses on multiple blockchains," the FBI said in a public service announcement.
"It is expected these assets will be further laundered and eventually converted to fiat currency," the announcement added.
The $1.5 billion total tops the $1 billion stolen by dictator Saddam Hussein from Iraq's central bank on the eve of the 2003 war.
Dubai-based Bybit is the world's second-largest crypto exchange, with more than 60 million users worldwide. On Wednesday, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou declared "war against Lazarus" and announced the launch of a website calling for bounty hunters to help recover the stolen funds.
The site tracks the hacker group's crypto wallet addresses and offers a 5% bounty for any information that leads to frozen funds.
"We will not stop until Lazarus or bad actors in the industry [are] eliminated," Zhou wrote in a post on X. "In the future we will open it up to other victims of Lazarus as well."
While North Korea remains under heavy international sanctions, it has increasingly turned to hacking and cybertheft in recent years to bankroll its illicit missile and nuclear programs.
Pyongyang funds 40% of its weapons programs through "illicit cybermeans," the U.N. Security Council's now-disbanded Panel of Experts estimated in an annual report released last year. The panel said that 58 suspected cyberattacks on cryptocurrency-related companies generated some $3 billion for the regime between 2017 and 2023.
In 2024, North Korean hackers reached new heights, stealing $1.34 billion from crypto platforms across 47 incidents, according to a December report by blockchain research firm Chainalysis. That figure accounted for 61% of the total amount stolen for the year, marking the continued development of Pyongyang's cybercrime capabilities.
"Hackers linked to North Korea have become notorious for their sophisticated and relentless tradecraft, often employing advanced malware, social engineering and cryptocurrency theft to fund state-sponsored operations and circumvent international sanctions," the Chainalysis report said.
North Korea is also using growing military ties with Russia to obtain hard currency and technical help with its weapons programs. Pyongyang has supplied munitions and some 12,000 troops to aid Moscow in its war against Ukraine, according to the United States and South Korea.
Seoul's spy agency said Thursday that the North recently deployed additional soldiers to Russia, with some headed to the frontlines in Kursk, where they have suffered heavy casualties.
"Following about a monthlong lull, North Korean troops were placed back in the frontline region of Kursk starting in the first week of February," Seoul's National Intelligence Service said, news agency Yonhap reported.
"It appears that there has been a deployment of additional troops, but their size is still being examined," the NIS said in a statement.
