South Korea Unveils 2019 Upbit Hack Linked to North Korean Hackers

• Hackers stole 342K Ethereum (now worth $1B) from Upbit in 2019.
• Police confirm Lazarus Group and Andariel, North Korea-linked hackers, carried out the heist.

South Korean police have officially confirmed that the 342,000 Ethereum (ETH) stolen from Upbit, the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, in 2019 was done by North Korean hacker groups Lazarus and Andariel. This is the first time a domestic agency has publicly linked North Korea to a major cryptocurrency theft.

Initially, the stolen ETH, worth around 58 billion won (about $50.43M at the time), was traced using North Korean IP addresses and cryptocurrency transaction flows, alongside assistance from the FBI. 

Recovery of Stolen ETH and Bitcoin

According to authorities, over half of the Ethereum (57%) was exchanged for Bitcoin at a much lower rate than market value. The remaining ETH was laundered through 51 overseas exchanges, which made tracking harder.

However, over four years of investigation, the police managed to recover 4.8 Bitcoins worth approximately 653 million Korean Won at the current price (around $467K) from a Swiss exchange. After confirming the stolen origin with Swiss prosecutors, the Bitcoins were returned to the Upbit account, as per a local news report.

This confirmation adds weight to earlier international reports that North Korea’s involvement in cybercrimes aimed at generating revenue through illicit activities, with the country’s hacker groups frequently targeting cryptocurrency exchanges. However, the police kept the details of the attack method under wraps to prevent similar attacks. Despite this, traces of North Korean language were found on the hackers’ computers, tying the theft directly to the country.

At the time of writing, 1 Ethereum was valued at $3,107 and held a market cap of $374.35 billion.

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