Cryptopia

#Cryptopia • 2019-01

🇳🇿 New Zealand

Cryptopia disclosed a January 2019 cryptocurrency exchange breach in New Zealand that triggered a police investigation and community blockchain tracing of stolen assets while key loss details were still emerging. Subsequent blockchain analysis tracked stolen Ether through intermediary wallets and into exchange-linked addresses, including Yobit, and broader cryptocurrency-theft reporting treated the case as part of the exchange-compromise and laundering landscape later referenced in DPRK sanctions reporting.

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Bluenoroff

Kaspersky

Bluenoroff is Kaspersky's name for a financially motivated unit within the broader Lazarus formation. Kaspersky introduced the designation publicly in 2017 while documenting bank intrusions connected to the 2016 Bangladesh Central Bank theft and other attacks on financial institutions and SWIFT-connected systems. The group used watering holes, backdoors, compromised infrastructure, and malware tailored to banking environments, with activity spanning multiple countries. By 2022, Kaspersky described a shift from banks and SWIFT servers toward cryptocurrency businesses as the group's principal source of illicit income. Operators created convincing cryptocurrency software companies and applications, delivered backdoored updates, and used malicious documents and social engineering to abuse trust. The reporting portrays Bluenoroff as able to draw on the larger formation's malware, exploits, and infrastructure while maintaining a distinct financial objective.

Lazarus Under The Hood
First seen: 2017-04 • Last seen: 2026-07

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