FBI seizes tools used by North Korean hackers, freezes $1.2bilion in stolen Binance funds

The US Department of Justice recently obtained court authorization to seize or restrain over $1.2 billion of the $6.7 billion stolen from Binance in a major heist. This action comes after extensive collaboration between various US government agencies and private sector partners to interdict the stolen assets. The attack, carried out by the North Korean state-sponsored threat group known as TraderTraitor, was part of a larger Lazarus Group operation.

While almost $3 billion has been frozen so far, most of the stolen funds remain unaccounted for. The DOJ also reported disrupting the cloud-based infrastructure used in a social engineering scheme called FaceStealer, which resulted in the theft of around $400 million over the past 18 months. The attack, which targeted Binance and other cryptocurrency exchanges, was conducted through an employee's device after they were tricked into downloading malware during a fake job interview.

The group then escalated their access to make off with the stolen funds, which were sent to various "mixers" and laundering services before being dispersed. North Korean state-sponsored hackers are widely believed to be using the proceeds from such cybercrimes to fund their government's activities, including its nuclear weapons program.