loader from loading.io

The Lazarus Group, The Bybit Hack and Sanctions: The New Battleground with Andrew Fierman

Analyse Asia

Release Date: 03/30/2025

The Lazarus Group, The Bybit Hack and Sanctions: The New Battleground with Andrew Fierman show art The Lazarus Group, The Bybit Hack and Sanctions: The New Battleground with Andrew Fierman

Analyse Asia

"The thing that's most fascinating, we talk a lot about how complex North Korea is here but when you compare it to some of the other illicit groups, particularly those that are sanctioned, say your terrorist organization that's soliciting donations on Telegram or some other social media outlet understanding what that difference in the level of complexity is, I think is really fascinating to actually know about. When we're talking about DPRK, we're talking about laundering of funds through tens of thousands. By the time we're done, it'll be hundreds of thousands of wallets. And then on the...

info_outline
Building Networks, Not Just Hiring: The Global Talent Strategy with Mark Reinecke show art Building Networks, Not Just Hiring: The Global Talent Strategy with Mark Reinecke

Analyse Asia

"When I discuss with senior leaders, interview them, or assess them for senior roles, they often come to me, and I ask them: 'What makes you unique? How do you see yourself?' Eighty percent of them tell me what they can't do. They talk about their development needs, and I say, 'Is that how you pitch yourself? Is that what you really bring to the table? You sit with a headhunter and tell me what you can’t do—why not tell me what you’re really good at?' Your exceptional value-add, your competitive advantage—that’s what makes an impact, not what you cannot do. Development needs require...

info_outline
Gambling Man: The Secret Story of the World's Greatest Disruptor, Masayoshi Son with Lionel Barber show art Gambling Man: The Secret Story of the World's Greatest Disruptor, Masayoshi Son with Lionel Barber

Analyse Asia

"They will judge Masa to have been an extraordinarily consequential investor and historic figure in world investing and tech investing because he has made not just spectacular bets—but he's made so many people rich. I mean, with other people's money. All these founders, he's given them money, he's been an enormous disruptor, and he's built global businesses. He's built a huge business in Japan on the mobile operator. So for all these reasons, I know he sometimes feels dissatisfied with his legacy, and he's now trying to build his greatest legacy in the march to artificial general...

info_outline
Scam Inc: How a $500B Crime Industry is Impacting the World with Sue-Lin Wong show art Scam Inc: How a $500B Crime Industry is Impacting the World with Sue-Lin Wong

Analyse Asia

"We're all vulnerable. And I hadn't thought about that previously. I thought, oh, it's only a small group of people who might fall for this. What I've learned is actually [that] these scammers are so sophisticated. They have so much money. Based on my reporting, this industry, you know, is maybe more lucrative than the illicit drug trade, and these criminal syndicates might be making over 500 billion US dollars a year.  So that means they have access to the latest technology, whether it's voice cloning or face changing software. They can buy  the latest in AI tools. they can stay several...

info_outline
The eFishery Scandal and its impact to Southeast Asia with Kristie Neo show art The eFishery Scandal and its impact to Southeast Asia with Kristie Neo

Analyse Asia

"So that was back in 2021. And then after Revolution Precrafted, there was Zilingo in 2022, and then Tanihub and Investree - which were P2P lenders in 2023(24) - and then eFishery. So actually every single year we've been getting pretty big blow ups. But as I was looking at the cases for each of them, one thing I've noticed is the sophistication of the fraud is actually becoming more advanced." - Kristie Neo Fresh out of the studio, Kristie Neo, an independent journalist covering tech and venture capital, joins us to dissect the rise of startup fraud in Southeast Asia and why it’s becoming...

info_outline
How Agentforce is Transforming Businesses in ASEAN with Sujith Abraham show art How Agentforce is Transforming Businesses in ASEAN with Sujith Abraham

Analyse Asia

"What's the point if it's a fast platform, but I still have to go somewhere else? And the last thing is speed. Right now, especially in our region, it's a land grab. When we think about some of the fastest-growing economies in the world—Indonesia, for example, Vietnam, the Philippines—you have hundreds of millions of people here. What we see in every customer I speak to is interest in how they use our platform to move faster, to deploy AI. They don't want to have to build a foundation level of AI, integrating all those elements themselves. They want to deploy it faster. When you think...

info_outline
Undivided Ventures: AI, Sustainability & Data Centre Technologies with Ariel Shtarkman show art Undivided Ventures: AI, Sustainability & Data Centre Technologies with Ariel Shtarkman

Analyse Asia

" Now, the beauty about the real estate industry, if you look outside and you look at the commercial buildings, you have a lot of data generated on a daily basis. The challenge is, what do you do with this data? How do you mine this data in a smart way to give you better investment decisions going forward [or] better decisions on how you run the building? Where are the opportunities to reduce your expenses? On the climate side, how do you reduce your operational carbon? How do you make those buildings better? I think that here, Gen AI, can help big time, because any solution that will mine...

info_outline
Virtuals Protocol and the intersection of Agentic AI & Web3 with Jansen Teng show art Virtuals Protocol and the intersection of Agentic AI & Web3 with Jansen Teng

Analyse Asia

"What does great look like? For us, it's being able to achieve this vision of a society of agents. So, if you can show clearly the economic value of a society when agents can influence other agents, agents can influence humans, and humans can influence agents, that would be something that I'll be very proud to say that we've accomplished. Because that's the beauty of really combining breakthroughs on the AI, on the autonomous agent front, and the value add of crypto. This is one of those very rare moments that crypto has that true potential value add, right? As a productivity lever and an...

info_outline
Why Southeast Asia Matters with Gullnaz Baig show art Why Southeast Asia Matters with Gullnaz Baig

Analyse Asia

"People always ask us this question, what can I learn from that country? People ask us about this from the report especially when we're talking to policymakers, or what should I learn from Malaysia? What should I learn? The thing to learn is  to not learn  to replicate exactly.  But the thing to learn is sort of what are the principles behind what works for them. What are your comparative advantages, Every country needs to be asking that for themselves. So for Vietnam, comparative advantages are things like  proximity to China, and an ability at a geopolitical level to navigate between...

info_outline
The Transition to Electric Buses: The KMB Experience & Philanthrophy with William Louey show art The Transition to Electric Buses: The KMB Experience & Philanthrophy with William Louey

Analyse Asia

“ Yeah. We plan to replace the fleet by 2040. We can't scrap all of them now because each bus lasts 18 years. So we have the depreciation for 18 years. They're all from the U.K. All the buses are from the U.K. All the double-deckers. That's the only country that makes double-decker buses, and it's the same as Singapore. All the double-deckers are from the U.K. Because of COVID, when we replace all these diesel buses with electricity, you need a lot more power and electricity to accommodate this. So the government has to work with us. But today, we can't really see that if we import all...

info_outline
 
More Episodes
"The thing that's most fascinating, we talk a lot about how complex North Korea is here but when you compare it to some of the other illicit groups, particularly those that are sanctioned, say your terrorist organization that's soliciting donations on Telegram or some other social media outlet understanding what that difference in the level of complexity is, I think is really fascinating to actually know about. When we're talking about DPRK, we're talking about laundering of funds through tens of thousands. By the time we're done, it'll be hundreds of thousands of wallets. And then on the other end of it, We have a terrorist organization that was, sanctioned mid last year for facilitating on behalf of Hamas. After they got sanctioned and their addresses that they were using, got seized and disrupted. They got annoyed and they tried to bridge funds with their new Ethereum wallet after they received a few donations and they didn't even have the gas fees to facilitate it. And the transaction,  when we're talking about the difference in the level of complexity here, it is really fascinating to know the nuance and it's not to say that, other nation states, like Russia or Iran don't have any level of complexity. They certainly do." - Andrew Fierman, Head of National Security Intelligence at Chainalysis Inc

Fresh out of the studio, Andrew Fierman, Head of National Security Intelligence at Chainalysis, provides an in-depth analysis of the recent $1.5 billion Bybit hack orchestrated by North Korea's Lazarus Group. Starting from his career journey from traditional banking to blockchain analytics, Andrew shares his expertise on how sanctioned entities operate in the cryptocurrency space and the sophisticated techniques employed by state-sponsored hackers. He explains how blockchain's transparency enables tracking of stolen funds. Andrew details how sanctioned states are increasingly turning to stablecoins and decentralized finance to evade traditional banking controls, while emphasizing the importance of KYC procedures and blockchain analytics in disrupting illicit activities. Last but not least, Andrew shares his perspectives on emerging threats in cryptocurrency security, including how AI-powered deepfakes and digital identity forgery are lowering barriers to sophisticated attacks.

Audio Episode Highlights:
[00:46] Quote of the Day by Andrew Fierman #QOTD
[02:38] Introduction of Andrew Fierman, Head of National Security Intelligence at Chainalysis
[05:54] Differences between traditional financial monitoring and blockchain transparency
[08:22] Explanation of the Bybit hack and how the hack occurred through a third-party vendor
[12:06] Lazarus Group's operational methods and their technical advancement
[15:10] Evolving tactics in the laundering process
[16:18] The importance of patience in tracking and disrupting funds
[19:39] Role of blockchain analytics in identifying and mitigating risks
[19:47] Challenges in tracing through bridges and DeFi protocols
[22:17] Comparison of North Korea's sophistication versus other sanctioned groups
[24:51] How exchanges can bolster their defenses against attacks
[27:52] Discussion of the Chainalysis 2025 Crypto Crime Report
[31:24] Secondary sanctions and their impact on international crypto payments
[35:28] Regulatory challenges around decentralized finance platforms
[37:42] Dusting attacks and their implications for everyday users
[40:43] Emerging threats in the crypto space
[41:38] Lowering barriers to sophisticated attacks through AI and deepfakes
[44:11] What success means for the crypto industry in fending off sanctioned groups
[46:35] Closing

Profile: Andrew Fierman, Head of National Security Intelligence at Chainalysis Inc https://www.chainalysis.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-fierman-87511611/

Chainalysis Crypto Crime Report: https://go.chainalysis.com/2025-Crypto-Crime-Report.html

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format. Here are the links to watch or listen to our podcast.

Analyse Asia Main Site: https://analyse.asia

Analyse Asia Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1kkRwzRZa4JCICr2vm0vGl

Analyse Asia Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/analyse-asia-with-bernard-leong/id914868245

Analyse Asia YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AnalyseAsia

Analyse Asia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/analyse-asia/

Analyse Asia X (formerly known as Twitter): https://twitter.com/analyseasia

Analyse Asia Threads: https://www.threads.net/@analyseasia

Sign Up for Our This Week in Asia Newsletter: https://www.analyse.asia/#/portal/signup

Subscribe Newsletter on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7149559878934540288