Hackers get $ 4.8 million through South Korea’s tax service crypto wallet

The South Korean tax authority has lost confiscated digital assets worth about $ 4.8 million due to a gross cybersecurity error. In an official press release, the agency accidentally disclosed a seed phrase from its cryptocurrency wallet, which gave attackers full access to the account.

The incident occurred during the publication of a report on the fight against tax evaders. To illustrate the work, officials added a photo of the Ledger hardware wallet, which showed a sheet with a mnemonic phrase — the main key to the assets. The image was not hidden or edited, allowing anyone to use the data.

Blockchain analysts quickly detected the movement of funds: 4 million PRTG (Pre-Retogeum) tokens were first transferred to one address on the Ethereum network, and then to an unknown third-party account. Experts confirmed the theft, noting that although the tokens are difficult to convert into cash, the state has effectively lost control over them.

The incident became another crypto scandal in South Korea. Earlier, the police reported the disappearance of 22 bitcoins from the safe of a police station in Gangnam, and the largest local exchange Bithumb came under pressure from regulators after a technical error when users were accidentally credited with non-existent assets worth $ 43 billion.

The incident with the tax service highlights a critical problem: even government agencies that are supposed to control digital finance remain vulnerable to basic cybersecurity errors. This calls into question the effectiveness of the country’s cryptocurrency asset protection and management system. South Korea’s tax authorities have lost control over crypto assets