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The world’s most famous hackers attacked Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges
The North Korean hacker group Lazarus sends phishing emails to employees of Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges. The goal is to infect computers with malware and steal funds. In recent years, several companies have suffered from this scheme. For example, in 2018, hackers hacked the Zaif crypto exchange, and in 2019, the Bitpoint Japan platform. In total, the attackers withdrew cryptocurrencies worth ¥6.7 billion and ¥3.5 billion.
In a joint statement, the National Police and the Financial Services Agency of Japan appealed to local companies working with cryptocurrencies and asked for vigilance and additional cybersecurity measures within the firms. However, neither the country’s authorities nor law enforcement agencies have yet disclosed details about which crypto companies were targeted or hacked as a result of these phishing attacks.
In recent months, Japan has been showing increasing loyalty to the cryptocurrency industry, even though the country was recently included in the list of countries where digital asset owners have nothing to expect. In early October, the Prime Minister of Japan announced that $ 7 billion would be allocated annually from the Japanese state budget for blockchain development. The country is going to exempt local cryptocurrency companies from taxes and reduce the tax rate for foreigners from 55% to 20%.
As a reminder, the hacker group Lazarus Group is accused of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto for the North Korean authorities. Experts claim that these funds are being used to develop nuclear weapons. The UN Security Council’s North Korea Sanctions Committee has accused hackers of attacking the Harmony and Ronin Bridge networks, which were successful and brought hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency to the attackers. According to analysts, it is these funds that the Korean dictatorship uses for its developments. The Sanctions Committee suggests that such attacks are likely to continue in the future.