North Korea likely got Lazarus to work days after warship fiasco

In addition to Tornado Cash, a report from blockchain analyst TRM Labs highlights North Korea’s reliance on Chinese over-the-counter brokers to launder stolen funds. It details how North Korea provides the cybercriminals, while China and Russian criminal networks provide the infrastructure to move stolen crypto.

Lazarus is suspected of funding the North Korean government through various cybercrimes and is believed to have hacked the crypto exchange Bybit for $1.5 billion.

Remote job applications have also been targeted by North Korean state actors who attempt to infiltrate companies with stolen identities and direct funds to the state.

All this to fund a state heavily impacted by sanctions. The hermit kingdom might have needed another cash injection, as days before the hack, its newly built 5,000-ton warship capsized after a disastrous sideways launch.

These destroyers aren’t cheap, with some South Korean warships costing almost $1 billion to build.

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