Special: The biggest heist yet

特别:迄今为止最大的盗窃案

The Lazarus Heist

2025-08-15

55 分钟
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单集简介 ...

$1.5 billion disappears in minutes. But what follows reveals North Korea’s expanding reach — from elite hackers to soldiers on the battlefield. The audacious attack was on the ByBit crypto exchange in February 2025. Investigators say North Korean hackers the Lazarus Group are responsible – the biggest heist in the history of crypto. With our hosts Jean Lee and Geoff White, we uncover how they pulled it off. But as Pyongyang’s cyber army is striking targets all over the world, North Korean soldiers have also been fighting on more traditional battlegrounds – siding with Russia in its war on Ukraine. We meet the South Korean correspondent who secured a world-exclusive interview with a North Korean POW. Does this all signify a turning point for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, as his cyber operatives pull off increasingly daring heists and his military gain real-world combat experience fighting with the Russians against Ukraine? As Kim continues to ally with Vladimir Putin — a leader whose country possesses exactly the kind of nuclear expertise North Korea has long sought – is he more dangerous than ever? Meanwhile North Korea says it has nothing to do with the cybercrimes the Lazarus Group is accused of, saying the United States is making these allegations to try and tarnish its image. Our story is about more than money. It’s about where it goes, what it buys, and who’s fighting in the shadows.
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单集文稿 ...

  • Friday night in Singapore, February 2025. The time?

  • It's around 10.30 and the CEO of a big digital finance company is working late.

  • He's got one last job ahead of the weekend, moving money from one account to another.

  • Pretty routine stuff.

  • Routine, but still needs concentration.

  • The money in question is in cryptocurrency and stored in a kind of digital vault.

  • For safety, it's usually kept offline, disconnected from the internet.

  • To use it, the CEO needs to bring it online, unlock it,

  • and move money into a more accessible vault, one that's open for business on the internet.

  • Think of it like moving money from a bank's underground vault up to the teller's desk.

  • In this case, the CEO wants to move 30,000 Ethereum,

  • one of the major cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin.

  • 30,000 Ethereum is a lot.

  • The cash equivalent is more than 100 million US dollars.

  • Multiple people need to sign off on the transfer before the exchange can go ahead.

  • The CEO and his team individually make their checks.

  • 30,000 Ethereum from offline vault A into online vault B. Yep, looks good.

  • They click the buttons to make it happen.

  • Done.

  • Then the CEO moves on.