North Korean hackers are reasonably suspected of being behind the November 27 hack of major South Korean exchange Upbit.
Law enforcement officials believe that members of the Lazarus Group, which attacked Upbit in 2019 and stole 58 billion won ($39.4 million) worth of digital assets from the platform, may be behind the cyberattack on the trading platform. Law enforcement officials declined to disclose details but noted similarities between the two incidents.
On Thursday, hackers managed to steal 44.5 billion won ($30.4 million) worth of virtual currencies issued on the Solana (SOL) blockchain from the exchange. Upon learning of the theft, company employees paused deposits and withdrawals of funds created on the SOL network and, as a precaution, transferred the coins to cold storage. Furthermore, specialists managed to freeze stolen tokens worth 2.3 billion won ($1.6 million).
The cyberattack did not disrupt the sale of Upbit to South Korean IT conglomerate Naver. The company will acquire the exchange through a securities swap, and Dunamu, the owner of the trading platform, will become a subsidiary of Naver. In light of the hacker attack, this news did not have a positive impact on the IT giant's stock price, which fell 3% over the past 24 hours.
