North Korean Hackers Move $38 Million in 7 Hours, Putting Relay Security Controls Under Scrutiny
Questions are mounting over the effectiveness of anti-money-laundering safeguards after North Korean hackers moved a large amount of crypto through a cross-chain protocol in a matter of hours.Wu Blockchain reported on Nov. 1 that on-chain analyst Specter said North Korean hackers moved about $38 million worth of crypto through Relay Protocol over roughly seven hours. The transfers were still ongoing when the analysis was made public.Relay Protocol is a cross-chain bridge and interoperability protocol that supports asset transfers across different blockchains. Users can move assets across multiple chains through the protocol.The issue is that Relay has said it operates a Know Your Transaction, or KYT, monitoring system, yet it failed to block the North Korean hackers' transfers.Specter added that moving such a large amount in that time frame would have been more difficult if the hackers had used THORChain. That has raised fresh questions about whether Relay's anti-money-laundering and risk-management systems are functioning adequately.Relay has not provided a detailed explanation, and it was not clear whether it had taken any additional action on the transactions. The case is again drawing attention to how cross-chain protocols monitor transactions and block illicit fund flows.