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A North Korean state-sponsored hacker group swiped about $41 million in crypto from an online casino.
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The group has stolen more than $200 million worth of crypto this year alone, the FBI said.
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The FBI said North Korea relies on online hacking to generate revenue for the regime.
An infamous North Korean hacker group swiped about $41 million worth of cryptocurrencies this week from an online casino and betting platform, according to the feds.
The FBI said the cyber group has pilfered more than $200 million this year alone.
In the latest incident, the FBI said the North Korean state-sponsored Lazarus Group hacked Stake.com on Monday.
The hackers moved millions in Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain (BSC), and Polygon from Stake.com to 33 different cryptocurrency addresses, the FBI said in a statement.
Reps for Stake.com did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Insider on Friday, but Edward Craven, a cofounder of the online casino, told the outlet DL News that the cyberattack was a “sophisticated breach.”
“The loss of funds is by no means a trivial amount, but this attack has not materially affected Stake’s operations,” Craven said.
According to the FBI, the Lazarus Group — which was sanctioned in 2019 by the US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control — has been behind several other high-profile international crypto heists.
The group has swiped more than $200 million worth of crypto in 2023 so far, including $60 million in July from Alphapo, a centralized crypto payment provider for gambling sites, and CoinsPaid, a crypto exchange based in Estonia. The FBI also said the group stole $100 million in June from Atomic Wallet, a cryptocurrency wallet.
The US government has said that operations by North Korean hackers help generate cash on behalf of the impoverished country’s regime to, in part, bankroll its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
The FBI said this week that it will “continue to expose” North Korea’s use of “illicit activities to generate revenue for the regime, including cybercrime and virtual currency theft.”
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