$37M Lost to Recent Hack, CoinsPaid Suspects the Lazarus Group

One challenge for crypto firms and investors is the threat of network and platform hacks that expose users' funds to crypto criminals.A recent incident occurred on July 22, when the digital asset payment gateway CoinsPaid was exploited, resulting in a $37.3 million loss.

However, Coinspad mentioned in an announcementthat they believe the North Korean state-backed cybercrime unit's Lazarus Group is responsible for the exploit.

Crypto payment platform CoinsPaid says it is collaborating with Estonian law enforcement agencies and many blockchain security companies to reduce the impact of the July 22 attack.CoinsPaid also believes the hacking group was after a much larger amount.

CoinsPaid Suspects the Lazarus Group for Crypto Hack

Though CoinsPaid did not mention how the funds were looted exactly, the attack forced the company to pause operations for four days.Furthermore, the payment gateway confirmed that all operations on its platform have recovered and are fully functional in a novel, more secure ecosystem.

It added that end-user funds weren't affected, but the platform had received considerable damage, even on its balance sheet. Regardless of the massive attack and loss, CoinsPaid says the North Korean hacker group was going after much more.

Three days after the hack, the crypto payment platform filed a report with Estonian law enforcement agencies to investigate the attack further.

Also, blockchain security companies like Match Systems, Chainalysis, and Crystal aided in the crypto payment platform's preliminary investigation at the beginning stage.Max Krupyshev, the CEO of CoinsPaid, believes the Lazarus Group will not escape justice for their alleged crime.

A blockchain security company, SlowMist, said that the recent CoinsPaid exploit may be related to two recent exploits in Alphapo and Atomic Wallet, which were robbed of $60 million and $100 million, respectively.

The Lazarus Group Focusing on Crypto Devs

The Lazarus Group is one of the most powerful hacker firms worldwide. Github, an online coding platform, strongly believes that the Lazarus Group is using a social engineering attack against workers in the cybersecurity and cryptocurrency sectors.

Furthermore, a cybersecurity firm, Socket.Dev, stated that Lazarus Group's main objective is to attract these experts and then compromise their GitHub accounts using malware-infected NPM packages to corrupt their computers.

The Socket.Dev explained that the hacker organization uses social media platforms like WhatsApp as its first point of contact.On these social media platforms, the attackers build a rapport with the victims, which leads them to clone malware-infested GitHub repos.

The cybersecurity firm further urged developers to carefully review repository invites before collaborating and to be very cautious when approached abruptly on social media to install any npm package.

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