Zaif

#Zaif • 2018-09

🇯🇵 Japan

Zaif, a Japan-based cryptocurrency exchange, reported unauthorized external access to hot-wallet management servers on September 14, 2018, resulting in theft of BTC, MONA, and BCH from customer and exchange assets. Linked reporting describes service suspension, regulator and law-enforcement notification, wallet tracing and blacklisting of attacker-controlled addresses, but does not identify the attacker or provide reusable technical intrusion details.

Related Actors

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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