Axie Infinity game developer involved in $ 625 million theft

Hackers were able to steal $ 625 million from one of the largest Play2Earn games, Axie Infinity, thanks to spyware downloaded by one of the developers.

As the researchers found out, the attackers sent job offers to the developers of the Axie Infinity blockchain game via LinkedIn. The hacker plan was implemented thanks to one of the employees who was interested in the job offer (apparently from a fake company). The developer went through several stages of an online interview and then received a «job offer» letter in the form of a PDF document, which contained the software that allowed the hackers to take control of 4 out of 9 validators.

As a reminder, the North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group is suspected of stealing $ 625 million, which attacked the Ronin sidechain back in March. Sky Mavis Inc. suffered losses of 173,600 ETH and $ 25.5 million — 1/3 of the stolen assets belonged to the company, but more than 100,000 ETH were gambling. However, on June 28, after the launch of the updated version of Ronin Wallet, the company began to return the lost funds to depositors.