Cryptocurrency payments platform CoinsPaid has pointed the finger at North Korean state-backed Lazarus Group as being behind the hacking of its internal systems, which allowed them to steal $37.3 million on July 22.
“We suspect Lazarus Group, one of the most powerful hacker organisations, is responsible,” CoinsPaid explained in a July 26 post.
While CoinsPaid didn’t explain how the money was stolen exactly, the incident forced the firm to halt operations for four days.
CoinsPaid is back to processing after being hit by a hacker attack. Сlient’s funds were not affected and are fully available.
“We believe Lazarus expected the attack on CoinsPaid to be much more successful. In response to the attack, the company’s dedicated team of experts has worked tirelessly to fortify our systems and minimize the impact, leaving Lazarus with a record-low reward.”
CoinsPaid filed a report with Estonian law enforcement three days after the hack to further investigate the exploit. In addition, several blockchain security firms such as Chainalysis, Match Systems and Crystal assisted in CoinsPaid’s preliminary investigation over the first few days.
The firm’s CEO, Max Krupyshev is confident that the Lazarus Group will be held accountable for their actions.
“We have no doubt the hackers won’t escape justice.”
Blockchain security firm SlowMist believes the CoinsPaid hack may be linked to two recent hacks in Atomic Wallet and Alphapo, which were exploited to the tune of $100 million and $60 million respectively.
MistTrack Update
Recently, the crypto community has been stirred by a sequence of incidents involving @coinspaid, @AtomicWallet, and Alphapo.
A veneer of mystery shrouds these incidents, yet there’s a possibility that Lazarus might be behind them all! pic.twitter.com/ppxRk3xtUh
Online coding platform GitHub believes — with “high confidence” — that Lazarus Group is conducting a social engineering scheme targeted at workers in the cryptocurrency and cybersecurity sectors.
According to a July 26 post by cybersecurity platform Socket.Dev, Lazarus Group’s objective is to lure in these professionals and compromise their GitHub accounts with malware-infected NPM packages to infiltrate their computers.
The cybersecurity platform said the first point of contact is often on a social media platform like WhatsApp, where the rapport is built before the victims are led to clone malware-laden GitHub repositories.
Socket.Dev urged software developers to review repository invitations closely before collaborating and to be cautious when abruptly approached on social media to install npm packages.
Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield has resigned from the Labour Party.
The 53-year-old MP is the first to jump ship since the general election and in her resignation letter criticised the prime minister for accepting thousands of pounds worth of gifts.
She told Sir Keir Starmer the reason for leaving now is “the programme of policies you seem determined to stick to”, despite their unpopularity with the electorate and MPs.
In her letter she accused the prime minister and his top team of “sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice” which are “off the scale”.
“I’m so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party,” she said.
Since December 2019, the prime minister received £107,145 in gifts, benefits, and hospitality – a specific category in parliament’s register of MPs’ interests.
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Ms Duffield, who has previously clashed with the prime minister on gender issues, attacked the government for pursuing “cruel and unnecessary” policies as she resigned the Labour whip.
She criticised the decision to keep the two-child benefit cap and means-test the winter fuel payment, and accused the prime minister of “hypocrisy” over his acceptance of free gifts from donors.
“Since the change of government in July, the revelations of hypocrisy have been staggering and increasingly outrageous,” she said.
“I cannot put into words how angry I and my colleagues are at your total lack of understanding about how you have made us all appear.”
Ms Duffield also mentioned the recent “treatment of Diane Abbott”, who said she thought she had been barred from standing by Labour ahead of the general election, before Sir Keir said she would be allowed to defend her Hackney North and Stoke Newington seat for the party.
Her relationship with the Labour leadership has long been strained and her decision to quit the party comes after seven other Labour MPs were suspended for rebelling by voting for a motion calling for the two-child benefit cap to be abolished.
“Someone with far-above-average wealth choosing to keep the Conservatives’ two-child limit to benefit payments which entrenches children in poverty, while inexplicably accepting expensive personal gifts of designer suits and glasses costing more than most of those people can grasp – this is entirely undeserving of holding the title of Labour prime minister,” she said.
Ms Duffield said she will continue to represent her constituents as an independent MP, “guided by my core Labour values”.