Shalini Nagarajan

North Korean hacker group Lazarus made attempts to move funds worth $63 million that were stolen from last year’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/defi-cross-chain-horizon-bridge-hacked-for-100m">Harmony bridge hack</a>, but the crypto exchanges used for the process claim its transfers have been blocked.



Blockchain sleuth ZachXBT <a href="https://twitter.com/zachxbt/status/1614771861266792449" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">shared</a> on Twitter that the group moved some 41,000 ETH over the weekend using Ethereum-based Railgun, a smart contract that keeps user identities private, to exchanges Binance, OKX and Huobi. The transactions were carried out between Jan. 13 and 14.



ZachXBT also shared over 350 addresses associated with the hacker group.&nbsp;



Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao <a href="https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1614887319177428992" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a> that the exchange has previously detected the hacker’s fund movement, and that it coordinated with Huobi in freezing the accounts. They also together managed to recover 124 bitcoin ($2.6 million), according to Zhao, implying that some of the stolen ether was swapped for bitcoin.



Huobi too was able to detect and prevent the hacker from attempting to launder funds, <a href="https://twitter.com/justinsuntron/status/1614901672102465538" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to</a> Justin Sun. About Capital, Sun’s investment firm, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/huobi-founder-sells-100-stake-to-justin-sun-fund-report">acquired Huobi in October</a>.&nbsp;



Harmony’s Horizon bridge was one of the biggest hacks of last year. It allows users to move their cryptoassets via cross-chain transfers between Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain and Harmony blockchains. The bridge was exploited in June 2022 for $100 million, with <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/funds-from-100m-horizon-bridge-exploit-sent-to-tornado-cash-mixing-service">the proceeds initially moved</a> via now-OFAC-sanctioned <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/tornado-cash">Tornado Cash</a>.&nbsp;



Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic <a href="https://hub.elliptic.co/analysis/over-1-billion-stolen-from-bridges-so-far-in-2022-as-harmony-s-horizon-bridge-becomes-latest-victim-in-100-million-hack/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> that different types of cryptoassets were stolen including ETH, BNB, USDT, USDC and Dai. After the theft, the hacker used different types of decentralized exchanges to swap the tokens for ETH, which is a “common technique utilized by DeFi hackers,” the firm added.&nbsp;



The<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-hacks-2022"> total amount of funds lost to hacks in 2022</a> amounted to $4.3 billion of cryptocurrency, representing a 37% jump from 2021. Smart contract vulnerabilities that lead to malicious exploits remain among the most pressing threats that need to be solved in 2023.



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North Korea’s Lazarus Hackers Try to Exfiltrate Harmony Funds

Sebastian Sinclair

<div id="highlights-block_62b5014ad5b03" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Horizon has been hacked for $100 million while stewards of the bridge said they are working with authorities to identify the attacker</li>
 <li>Funds and assets from the Bitcoin bridge remain unaffected as they are stored in decentralized vaults, Harmony&#8217;s team said</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Horizon Bridge, a cross-chain interoperability platform between Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Harmony blockchain networks, has been hacked for $100 million.



The <a href="https://twitter.com/harmonyprotocol/status/1540110924400324608?s=20&amp;t=FQu-UkjkAlALGKntjqBnzg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Harmony team</a>, stewards of the bridge, said Thursday it has been made aware of the theft and has begun working with national authorities as well as forensic specialists to identify the attacker in an attempt to retrieve the stolen funds.



&#8220;We discovered the hack this morning and immediately began reaching out to our cyber security partners, exchanges, and the FBI, and we&#8217;re actively working with all three,&#8221; Harmony told Blockworks via Telegram.



&#8220;Once contact was established, our next goal was to communicate the situation with our community via Twitter and we&#8217;ve since published a <a href="https://medium.com/harmony-one/harmonys-horizon-bridge-hack-1e8d283b6d66" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Medium article</a> which will receive ongoing updates as information is gathered,&#8221; the team added.



Harmony representatives said the hack did not impact the trustless Bitcoin bridge, as funds and assets are stored on decentralized vaults and are considered &#8220;safe at this time.&#8221; Horizon Bridge is audited by blockchain security firm Peckshield. 



It&#8217;s the latest in a string of hacks against protocols, bridges and projects, including a $20 million theft from Ethereum scaling solution <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/20m-tokens-lost-as-market-maker-wintermute-takes-blame/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Optimism</a> earlier this month and a $320 million hack against Solana bridge <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/in-second-largest-defi-hack-ever-blockchain-bridge-loses-320m-ether/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Wormhole</a> in February. Ethereum-linked sidechain <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/sky-mavis-ronin-network-bridge-exploited-for-over-600m/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ronin Network</a> — used for blockchain game Axie Infinity — also suffered a hack in April with a whopping $620 million stolen.



Horizon enables cross-chain transfers of digital assets between Ethereum and Harmony, as well as BSC, via a set of smart contracts deployed across those three chains. Users holding assets including stablecoins, ERC-20 tokens or Binance&#8217;s BEP-20 tokens can exchange them for corresponding assets on Harmony for a 1:1 ratio.



In a later <a href="https://twitter.com/harmonyprotocol/status/1540110926937894913?s=20&amp;t=FQu-UkjkAlALGKntjqBnzg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweet update</a> on Thursday, Harmony&#8217;s team said it had identified the hacker&#8217;s wallet address. The <a href="https://etherscan.io/address/0x0d043128146654c7683fbf30ac98d7b2285ded00" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">address</a> has a balance of roughly 85,837 ether or around $98 million at time of writing.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">&#8220;We have also notified exchanges and stopped the Horizon bridge to prevent further transactions. The team is all hands on deck as investigations continue,&#8221; the team said.</blockquote>



Harmony told Blockworks its founder, Stephen Tse, will discuss the hack and the team&#8217;s ongoing efforts via YouTube on Friday, as well as an update on their attempt to identify the culprit and retrieve the stolen funds.



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Harmony Bridge