North Korea’s $1.5 billion heist puts the crypto world on notice
As news started spreading about a massive hack on crypto exchange Bybit last Friday, cybersecurity researchers quickly concluded that the era of giant digital-asset heists had entered a new and potentially ruinous phase.
It wasn’t just the size of the exploit, although at close to $1.5 billion, it was the biggest ever by a wide margin. Within hours, it was clear that the attack — which the FBI attributed to North Korea’s Lazarus Group — was far more ambitious, and difficult to prevent, than any that preceded it.
Perhaps most disturbing was that the hackers managed to drain a so-called cold crypto storage wallet, a piece of hardware used to hold the private key needed to access funds. Such…
