The United States managed to return part of the cryptocurrency funds stolen by Korean hackers

The U.S. Department of Justice has confiscated and returned cryptocurrency funds stolen by Korean hackers — approximately $ 500,000.

According to representatives of the US Department of Justice, law enforcement agencies traced a $ 100,000 payment in bitcoin sent by a Kansas hospital to a North Korean hacker group to restore access to the hospital’s system that had been lost due to a cyberattack. A similar situation occurred in Colorado, where a medical facility transferred $ 120,000 in BTC to fraudsters. In total, several identical cases were identified, with a total loss of approximately $ 500,000.

«Crypto-criminals are constantly pushing the envelope to find new ways to extort money from victims, forcing them to pay huge sums to regain control of entire institutions' computer systems,» said Duston Slinkar, U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas.

The U.S. Department of Justice urges victims of cyberattacks to immediately contact law enforcement agencies, as this way there is a better chance of «quickly tracing the lost funds, recovering them and preventing further attacks.»

As a reminder, hackers from North Korea topped the anti-rating among the countries with the highest number of cryptocurrency crimes. More than 7,000 hackers from North Korea have caused material damage to the entire crypto community. Currently, there are more than 15 open criminal proceedings against the attackers, whose damage from hacker attacks is estimated at almost $ 2 billion.