Binance said that a multistage operation involving fake interviews and an internal AI tool — and suspected of being carried out as early as June — affected $6.34 billion in digital assets.

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said on Tuesday that hackers used fake job interviews and an internal AI tool in a cyberattack that resulted in the theft of more than $6 billion in digital assets last week.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has attributed the theft to North Korea, identifying the incident as the work of a North Korean hacking group that it calls TraderTraitor, a name previously tied to other cryptocurrency thefts.

In its latest findings, Binance said that a multistage operation involving fake interviews and an internal AI tool — and suspected of being carried out as early as June — affected $6.34 billion in digital assets.

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“In September, a fake recruiter on a job platform ran video interviews and sent an ‘assignment’ repository carrying 0-day malware undetected by endpoint tools,” the exchange said in a report.

According to Binance, the attacker on Oct. 20 used an internal AI tool as a springboard to reach a container deployment token and later deployed a container to trigger the attack.

Binance said that it blocked 57 suspected North Korea-linked threats this year.

On Tuesday, Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, flatly dismissed the findings of the FBI, calling them a “grave political provocation” against Pyongyang.

The U.S. State Department reiterated concerns over North Korea’s use of cybercrime to finance its weapons programs.

“The issue of DPRK cybercrime is a global problem that touches companies and jurisdictions around the world, including the United States,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson told Yonhap News Agency, referring to the acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, when asked about the department’s position regarding the North’s latest claim.


Yonhap