North Korean hackers used fake video calls in $400M crypto hack, says FBI

I blogged about this earlier this year - I think they reached out to me as part of my crate work and tried to get me to download a booby-trapped repo with a remote shell.

Insidious attack, it felt very real, they had a compelling fake network of sites and companies

Related: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/30/how-crypto-hac...

Cryptocurrency theft is estimated to generate half of the country’s foreign currency income

There were obvious signs that things should look fishy, but I understand people cannot be vigilant all the time, and hence the trap. Once way to keep remining employees and staff is constant refresher courses. But this has been a problem haunting my workspace as well

I really hope someone is able to obtain a screen-recording video of this as an example. I'd like to see just how good the 'fake' person on the other end really is... To date all the reports of this have been in written text form after the fact.

The DPRK noted that Donald Trump said that he would take possession of recovered stolen crypto as a state reserve. Their media noted dryly that when the coins are recovered, it would be good to watch where they go and that information should lead one to ask qui bono.

The funny think about the DPRK is that because no one will ask a single critical question about something bad said about them, you can say literally anything and pin the blame on them.

https://coinpedia.org/research-report/u-s-strategic-bitcoin-...

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Chick Bongo strikes again!

"If you can't imagine a scenario where you might fall prey to it, you are not thinking creatively enough."

I dunno, maybe I'm being smug but I don't think I would fall for this.

Kind of interesting we care about NK when they steal fictional digiBux but don't care about them torturing men, women, and children in the gulags for the past several decades.

This is a real "thoughts and prayers" type situation because I basically have zero sympathy for those affected by this. There's really no reason for crypto to exist. You're kind of on your own. I view reversible transactions and the like as a feature not a bug. Every one of these crypto thefts is the fruit of irreversible transactions that crypto advocates wanted.

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

Don't get me wrong: I love reading about the ingenuity involved in these hacks. Keep em coming. The Ledger chip hack was particularly impressive from a technical POV.

Honestly, is crypto good for anything other than crimes and North Korea's budget?