The Lazarus Files

[lingriiddd]

Subject: Lazarus Group – The Digital Ghosts of Pyongyang

Case Report: 2021–2025 | Division: Cyber Ops | Status: Ongoing

Between the years 2021 and 2025, a storm brewed quietly behind the blinking lights of crypto exchanges and blockchain bridges. Its name: Lazarus — a state-backed cybercrime unit operating under the iron grip of North Korea’s regime.

In four years, they’ve siphoned off over $5 billion in digital assets, leaving a trail of shattered protocols and compromised networks. Their victims? Some of Web3’s biggest names: UpBit, KuCoin, Ronin Bridge, Atomic Wallet, and Bybit.

They don’t knock. They don’t warn. And they never come back empty-handed.
File #001 – Who Are They?

Lazarus Group isn’t a new ghost in the machine. This crew’s been active for decades — under aliases like APT 38, Labyrinth Chollima, and HIDDEN COBRA. But make no mistake, it’s the same operators. Same mission: Destabilize, disrupt, and fund the regime. Only now, they’re doing it in crypto.

Their orders come straight from Pyongyang — and the revenue? It's rumored to be fueling nuclear ambitions and ballistic experiments in the DPRK.
File #002 – Historical Timeline (2007–2020)

Before they were kings of crypto, Lazarus honed their craft on legacy systems. Here’s a brief on their early hits:

Operation Flame (2007): Breach of South Korean defense networks. Clean. Surgical.

Sony Pictures Hack (2014): Retaliation for “The Interview.” Hollywood felt that one.

WannaCry Ransomware (2017): 230,000 infected systems. 150 countries. Global chaos.

Military Espionage (Ongoing): Data theft from adversary states. Especially the South.

South Korean Infrastructure (Various): From banks to power plants — nothing was sacred.

Each operation? A rehearsal for something bigger. And in 2017, the pivot began.
File #003 – Enter Web3 (2017–Present)

Bithumb, July 2017. The first confirmed Lazarus crypto hit. They walked away with $7 million in 24 hours. No ransom. No trace.

From there, the game escalated.

They exploited the very strengths of crypto — decentralization, speed, opacity — turning them into weapons. With a few well-placed lines of malicious code, smart contracts became vault doors blown wide open.
File #004 – Tactics & Tradecraft

Lazarus doesn’t rely on brute force. They use the oldest tricks in the book, dressed up in new tech:

Social Engineering: Fake jobs. Polished résumés. Even interviews. They hunt humans first, machines later.

Private Key Compromise: One wallet. One weak point. That’s all it takes to drain millions.

Smart Contract Exploits: They don’t break chains — they twist the logic inside them.

Money Laundering 2.0: Automated mixers, cross-chain swaps, off-ramps in rogue states. Even with eyes on them, they vanish like smoke.

24/7 Ops: Around-the-clock shifts. Military-grade discipline. These aren’t freelancers — they’re soldiers behind keyboards.

File #005 – The Fallout

Regulators scramble. Exchanges tighten KYC. Protocols add audit layers. But Lazarus adapts. Every. Single. Time.

Why crypto? Because it’s instant. Because it’s irreversible. Because once it’s gone, it’s gone — and no court in the world can pull it back from a cold wallet in Pyongyang.

They’re not just thieves. They're weapons in a global cyber-war — and they’ve already won too many battles.
Current Status:

$5 billion missing.
Web3 reeling.
Lazarus still active.

End of report? Not even close.
This is just Volume One.

Next File Incoming: Known Affiliates, Backdoor Malware, and Zero-Day Exploits Used by Lazarus.
Stay sharp, detective. The chain’s only as strong as its weakest link.