It’s the latest in a string of hacks of cryptocurrency firms linked to Pyongyang that US officials worry could be used to fund the North Korean regime’s nuclear and ballistic weapons programs. The hackers drained the cryptocurrency accounts of certain customers of Atomic Wallet, an Estonia-based company that claims 5 million users of its software. Atomic Wallet said on Saturday that “less than 1%” of monthly users appeared to be affected by the hack.
In the Atomic Wallet incident, the hackers’ money-laundering techniques and the tools they used matched telltale North Korean behavior, according to London-based crypto-tracking firm Elliptic. An independent cryptocurrency tracker known as ZachXBT told CNN that North Korean hackers were very likely responsible. The amount confirmed stolen could rise above $35 million as Atomic Wallet continues to investigate the incident, the analyst said.