hack

Kraken Defies Extortion Attempt Following Insider Data Breaches
Crypto exchange Kraken has confirmed it is facing an extortion attempt after two separate incidents of unauthorized data access by internal support staff. Chief Security Officer Nicholas Percoco stated that approximately 2,000 accounts (0.02% of users) were affected, though he emphasized that no systems were breached and no funds were at risk.
Incident Details
February 2025: Kraken identified a staff member accessing support systems after a video surfaced on a criminal forum.
Recent Incident: A second, similar case was discovered following another tip and video.
Scope: Exposure was strictly limited to client support data; custody systems and account access remained secure.
Zero-Negotiation Policy
Kraken has terminated both employees and revoked all access. Percoco affirmed a firm stance against the extortionists, stating, "We will not pay these criminals; we will not ever negotiate." The company is currently collaborating with law enforcement to pursue arrests.
Rising Operational Threats
This incident reflects a broader trend noted in TRM Labs’ 2026 Crypto Crime Report. Attacks are shifting away from protocol exploits toward operational compromises—such as social engineering and weak access controls. Total illicit crypto volume surged to $158 billion in 2025, a 145% increase from the previous year. #hack #Dogecoin‬⁩ #MarketCorrectionBuyOrHODL? $BNB $XRP

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Drift has revealed that the April 1, 2026, attack that led to the theft of $285 million was the culmination of a months-long targeted and meticulously planned social engineering operation undertaken by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) that began in the fall of 2025.

The Solana-based decentralized exchange described it as "an attack six months in the making," attributing it with medium confidence to a North Korean state-sponsored hacking group dubbed UNC4736, which is also tracked under the cyptonyms AppleJeus, Citrine Sleet, Golden Chollima, and Gleaming Pisces.

The threat actor has a history of targeting the cryptocurrency sector for financial theft since at least 2018. It's best known for the X_TRADER/3CX supply chain breach in 2023 and the $53 million hack of decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Radiant Capital in October 2024.

"The basis for this connection is both on-chain (fund flows used to stage and test this operation trace back to the Radiant attackers) and operational (personas deployed across this campaign have identifiable overlaps with known DPRK-linked activity)," Drift said in a Sunday analysis.

In an assessment published in late January 2026, cybersecurity company CrowdStrike described Golden Chollima as an offshoot of Labyrinth Chollima that's primarily geared towards cryptocurrency theft by targeting small fintech firms in the U.S., Canada, South Korea, India, and Western Europe.

"The adversary typically conducts smaller-value thefts at a more consistent operational tempo, suggesting responsibility for ensuring baseline revenue generation for the DPRK regime," CrowdStrike said. "Despite improving trade relations with Russia, the DPRK requires additional revenue to fund ambitious military plans that include constructing new destroyers, building nuclear-powered submarines, and launching additional reconnaissance satellites."

In at least one incident observed in late 2024, UNC4736 delivered malicious Python packages through a fraudulent recruitment scheme to a European fintech company. Upon gaining access, the threat actor moved laterally to the victim's cloud environment to access IAM configurations and associated cloud resources, and ultimately diverted cryptocurrency assets to adversary-controlled wallets.
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