Norway seizes $5.9M stolen in $600M Axie Infinity hack / Hyundai and Kia patch security flaw / Oakland declares state of emergency after being hacked

Plus: U.S.-based company Deepwatch raises $180M to boost its threat detection and response platform

Inside.com Part of   Network February 16, 2023

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Norwegian police have seized $5.9M that was stolen in last year's $620M Axie Infinity breach from the Lazarus Group. This is one of the largest operations of its kind in Norway's history. More: In March 2022, North Korean hackers conducted one of the largest-ever crypto hacks, stealing $620M from the Ronin Bridge sidechain of Axie Infinity. During this breach, Lazarus Group stole cryptocurrency that belonged to 750 Norwegian citizens, causing the country's police to initiate an investigation. Once they tracked the addresses tied to the breach, authorities cooperated with popular cryptocurrency exchange Binance to freeze the funds. Norway law authorities stated that the operation was conducted in cooperation with the FBI. Norway's officials stated that the funds that North Korea-backed hackers steal are used to develop the country's nuclear program, a sentiment that has been shared in the past by U.S. authorities. Zoom Out: Lazarus became famous when it hacked Sony Pictures in 2014 and leaked films, emails, and personal data belonging to 4,000 employees. This breach is believed to have been launched as revenge for the film The Interview, which parodied Kim Jong-un.

Hyundai and Kia have patched a security flaw that enabled hackers to steal cars using a USB cable. The flaw was made public through TikTok videos that taught people how to take advantage of it. More: The security bug is tied to a logic flaw that allows the turn-key-to-start system to bypass the immobilizer that verifies the key's transponder to the car's ECU.  This flaw affected nearly 3.8 million Hyundai vehicles and 4.5 million Kia vehicles. As a result of the flaw being exploited, at least 14 car crashes and eight fatalities happened. There was a 900% increase in Kia and Hyundai thefts in Chicago in 2022, while Los Angeles saw an 85% increase YoY. The two companies will provide a software upgrade free of charge for all impacted vehicles. The rollout started being implemented to more than 1 million vehicles and will last until June 2023.

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The city of Oakland has declared a state of emergency after being hacked by unknown threat actors. The city's digital infrastructure is still not functioning properly after being hit with ransomware eight days ago. More: The city has not given information regarding the technical details of the breach, but it stated that it is cooperating with law authorities.  The incident did not affect core services, with the 911 dispatch and fire and emergency resources all working as expected. According to the announcement, federal agencies are involved in the investigation.

U.S.-based company Deepwatch has raised $180M to boost its threat detection and response platform. Springcoast Capital Partners led the funding round. More: Deepwatch offers a cyber threat detection and response platform, in addition to tailored guidance from in-house experts. The company claims that it had a 100% YoY sales growth rate in 2022. Its product is used by several Fortune 100 companies Splunk Ventures and Vista Credit Partners also participated in the funding round. Deepwatch is based in Tampa, Florida.

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Descope has raised a $53M Seed funding round to enable businesses to provide passwordless authentication. The company offers a suite of APIs that developers can deploy within minutes. More: The company offers a suite of APIs that developers can deploy within minutes to enable e-commerce businesses to use passwordless authentication. Passwordless authentication is considered to be the next major evolution in login credential security, as passwords have consistently proven to be the weakest link hackers have breached for decades during their hacking campaigns. Lightspeed Venture Partners and GGV Capital led the funding round, with participation from Dell Technologies Capital, TechAviv, J Ventures, Cerca, Unusual Ventures, and Silicon Valley CISO Investments. The company aims to use this funding round to outsource several aspects of its software development that would make its workflow more efficient.

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Arbër is an Inside writer who also has experience in entrepreneurship. He has experience covering Consumer Tech, Venture Capital, NFTs, Crypto, etc. Arbër holds a Bachelor's degree in Business from XAMK University in Finland. When he is not reading(and writing) business news, he chooses to watch sports or anime...and then read news about sports or anime. Editor Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords.

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