[South Korean Police Dismantle International Hacking Group, Involved Amount Reaches $28.1 Million]
South Korean police in Seoul recently successfully dismantled an international hacking group, arresting 16 suspects. The group infiltrated government and financial institution websites to steal personal information of wealthy individuals and bypassed security systems using forged phone numbers to steal funds from bank and cryptocurrency accounts, with the involved amount reaching $28.1 million.
Although the group had obtained data on 258 prominent individuals, including 28 cryptocurrency investors, 75 corporate executives, 12 celebrities, and 6 athletes, their actual theft targets were only 26 people, whose total account balances amounted to $39.8 billion (55.22 trillion KRW). Among them, 16 victims had their cryptocurrency stolen, with the largest single loss amounting to $15.4 million (21.3 billion KRW).
Additionally, financial institutions successfully intercepted 10 theft attempts totaling $18 million. BTS member Jungkook's Hybe Entertainment stock account faced an attempted theft of $6.1 million, but it was thwarted due to abnormal activity monitoring by the bank and intervention by the brokerage firm. Police have frozen and returned $9.2 million in stolen funds.
