US disrupts North Korea's $400 million crypto scam, FBI says - DW.com
The United States Justice Department has seized cloud infrastructure used by North Korean hackers in a video-call scam that has stolen more than $400 million in cryptocurrency over 18 months.
The operation, dubbed 'FaceStealer' by the FBI, involved hackers sending meeting invitations from compromised accounts. Once targets joined, the criminals recorded their webcam video and played prerecorded clips of previous victims to create the illusion of trusted contacts being present.
The hackers then staged fake technical errors and provided malicious links to 'fix' the issue, installing malware on victims' devices. In some cases, they waited months or even over a year before stealing funds, then used the victim's contacts to identify new targets.
If you can't imagine a scenario where you might fall prey to it, you are not thinking creatively enough.
Binance Hack
Separately, the Justice Department revealed it had court approval to seize or restrain more than $1.2 billion taken in the recent Binance hack.
US agencies and private firms have since frozen more than $2.7 billion of the stolen funds. Authorities typically file forfeiture claims in court, after which judges determine rightful ownership of recovered assets.
The Binance hack represents the largest cryptocurrency theft on record. Unlike the FaceStealer operation, this was linked to North Korean military hackers rather than the Sapphire Sleet cluster responsible for the video scam.
North Korea has denied involvement in the Binance hack. However, US officials have consistently accused the country of using cryptocurrency theft to fund its weapons programs.
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