In brief
- The DOJ said North Korean hackers stole more than $400 million in crypto over 18 months via “FaceStealer,” a scheme using secretly recorded webcam footage and AI deepfakes of trusted figures to win targets’ trust on video calls.
- The hackers increasingly target open-source developers, apparently to enable supply-chain attacks.
- Separately, the DOJ has obtained authorization to seize over $1.2 billion tied to the Binance hack, part of $2.7 billion frozen.
North Korean hackers have stolen more than $400 million in cryptocurrency over the past 18 months using a social-engineering scheme built on secretly recorded footage and AI deepfakes, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday, as it announced the seizure of the infrastructure behind the operation.
The scheme, which the FBI calls “FaceStealer,” turns video conference calls into a trap. According to the DOJ, hackers lure targets into meetings using accounts stolen from previous victims, then play prerecorded webcam footage of trusted contacts to simulate their presence and win the target’s confidence.
The group also generates deepfake videos of well-known figures in the crypto and related industries, using AI to make the ruse more convincing.
