Korean Cryptocurrency Exchange Hack History: Upbit Once Hit by North Korean Hackers Stealing 342,000 ETH, Bithumb Hacked Four Times with Continuous Vulnerabilities

BlockBeats News, November 27. Upbit, South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange, was attacked today. It was previously hacked on November 27, 2019, with 342,000 ETH stolen from its hot wallet and transferred to an unknown address, worth about $50 million. The mastermind behind the theft is suspected to be the North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group. After the theft, Upbit fully compensated users with its own funds and suspended trading for two weeks, then increased the cold wallet asset storage ratio to 70%.

Upbit disclosed this morning that it detected abnormal withdrawal activity at 4:42 am, with approximately 54 billion Korean won (about $36 million) of Solana network-related digital assets transferred to an unknown external wallet address. Upbit will cover all customer losses and has suspended Solana network asset deposits and withdrawals. The stolen assets include tokens such as 2Z, ACS, BONK, DOOD, TRUMP, USDC, W, among others.

Notably, yesterday, South Korea's largest media group, Naver, agreed to acquire Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange, in an all-stock deal, with the transaction valued at around $10.3 billion.

Bithumb, South Korea's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, has also been hacked multiple times. In February 2017, unknown hackers breached an employee's computer, stole user data, and transferred around $7 million in assets. Some of Bithumb's user data was leaked, leading to subsequent phishing attacks. In June of the same year, another employee's computer was compromised, resulting in the leak of personal information of 31,000 users and subsequent fund theft losses of about $1 million.

On June 20, 2018, Bithumb's hot wallet was breached, with around $32 million in assets stolen, and the hackers were suspected to be the North Korean Lazarus Group. Bithumb halted trading, transferred assets to cold wallets, compensated users for half of the funds, and successfully recovered the other half of the stolen funds.

On March 29, 2019, Bithumb experienced abnormal withdrawals from its hot wallet, with EOS and XRP being transferred, indicating possible internal assistance. The total loss was about $19 million. Bithumb fully compensated users and triggered an investigation by the South Korean police.