North Korean hackers suspected as crypto firm recovers from “hardest hit” in a decade
Almost three weeks after a costly breach, Bitrefill, known for its crypto gift card business, has almost fully recovered. A North Korean group is suspected to be behind the attack.
According to the company, the attacker's modus operandi, the malware used, on-chain tracing, and reused IPs and email addresses are similar to those of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) Lazarus/Bluenoroff group.
"We’ve been in business for over 10 years, and it’s the first time we’ve been hit this hard. But we survived," Bitrefill said.
The attack on March 1st resulted in an unspecified financial loss, as wallets were drained and the business was disrupted. Additionally, around 18,500 purchase records were accessed by the attackers.
While most of this data includes only email addresses, crypto payment addresses, and metadata such as IP addresses, around 1,000 transactions were linked to customer names, which are now treated as having been accessed by the criminals. In either case, the company notified these users.
However, they added that, based on the information currently available, they do not believe customers need to take any specific action but should remain cautious about any unexpected communications related to Bitrefill or crypto.
At the time of writing, the company’s status page shows that all its services are available, while only two payment methods – dogecoin and dashcoin – are still disabled. The company also claims that its sales volumes are back to normal.
In its incident report, Bitrefill said that the attackers compromised an employee's laptop and exfiltrated a legacy credential that gave them access to a snapshot containing production secrets and, subsequently, their broader infrastructure, including parts of their database and certain cryptocurrency wallets.
"The moment we identified the breach, we took all of our systems offline as part of our containment response," the company said, adding that there is no evidence that the attackers extracted their entire database.
According to the platform, the company is well-funded, has been profitable for several years, and will absorb losses from its operating capital.
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