The California-based crypto business, Harmony, officially confirmed that an anonymous hacker has allegedly stolen over $100 million in crypto from the company’s main service, Horizon Bridge, a blockchain bridge, on June 24. The hack consists of cryptocurrencies such as Binance coin, Ethereum, Tether, and wrapped bitcoin.
To retrieve the stolen cryptocurrency, Harmony tweeted that it has prepared a bountyBinance coin, Ethereum, Tether, and wrapped bitcoin. of $1 million for the hackers in return for the looted $100 million in ETH. The company also stated that no legal action would be taken against the hacker if the looted amount was returned. However, the company does not seem to work as no amount was retrieved.
On June 30, Harmony tweeted to announce the global manhunt to retrieve the Horizon Bridge $100 million hack. The attack is being investigated by law enforcement and two security firms, Chainalysis and AnChain.AI. The Harmony team has now given anyone involved in the hack one last opportunity to return the funds anonymously. The best conditions are that they get to retain $10 million, pay back the rest, and the investigation is also put on hold. By Monday, July 4 at 23:00 GMT, the offending party must answer in order to continue communication.
The team tweeted the Ethereum address where the hacker can return the stolen assets back. The ETH ID is 0xd6ddd996b2d5b7db22306654fd548ba2a58693ac. Transaction ID 0xa4eda32985503e91dd02c31222a5e53a6a40f55129ec86c716d6446a7186b426 is present in the communication delivered to the offender(s).
1/ Harmony has begun a global manhunt for the criminal(s) who stole $100M from the Horizon bridge. All exchanges have been notified. Law enforcement, @Chainalysis, and @AnChainAI have active investigations to identify the responsible actors and recover the stolen assets.
— Harmony 💙 (@harmonyprotocol) June 30, 2022
North Korean hacking group responsible for the $100 million Horizon Bridge hack
The $100 million attacks on the Horizon bridge were carried out by the North Korean cyber collective known as the Lazarus Group, which is said to be supported by the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un regime. The London-based blockchain research group Elliptic Enterprises was closely monitoring the stolen money. On June 29, the company revealed that it had come to this conclusion.
JUST IN: Blockchain forensics company 'Elliptic Enterprises' claims North Korean hackers are behind the recent $100 million #Harmony crypto heist.
— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) June 29, 2022
According to the report from Elliptic notes:
“The theft was perpetrated by compromising the cryptographic keys of a multi-signature wallet – likely through a social engineering attack on Harmony team members.” Such techniques have frequently been used by the Lazarus Group.”
