Ethereum Foundation Exposes North Korean IT Infiltration, Over 100 Agents Lurking in 53 Crypto Projects

According to BroadChain, at 03:16 on April 18, Bitcoinist reported that the Ethereum Foundation announced the results of its ETH Rangers security program on April 16. Launched in late 2024 in collaboration with Secureum, The Red Guild, and the Security Alliance (SEAL), the program aims to strengthen the Ethereum ecosystem by funding public security projects. Over six months, the program has recovered or frozen over $5.8 million, reported more than 785 vulnerabilities and proof-of-concept attacks, and identified approximately 100 North Korean state-sponsored agents who infiltrated around 53 Web3 projects using false identities. Among these efforts, the Ketman project, which focuses on tracking North Korean IT personnel, has achieved significant results. Its published investigation reports have attracted over 3,300 active users and, in collaboration with SEAL, developed the industry reference framework "DPRK IT Workers Framework." Additionally, the program has coordinated responses to over 36 security incidents, facilitated the creation or improvement of at least seven open-source tool libraries, and provided support to more than 800 teams through over 80 workshops. Recently, following the exposure of the $285 million loss suffered by Drift Protocol due to an attack by the North Korean hacker group UNC4736, industry vigilance against North Korean infiltration has continued to rise, with some projects implementing targeted screening measures in their recruitment processes.