North Korean hackers reportedly spent months cultivating Drift employees offline, making off with $285 million

BlockBeats reported on May 1 that North Korean hackers allegedly spent months approaching and penetrating Drift Protocol staff through in-person, offline engagement before launching what is described as one of the largest social-engineering attacks in crypto history. The incident resulted in an estimated $285 million in losses. Blockchain security firm TRM Labs said North Korean actors have been responsible for 76% of total cryptocurrency theft losses since 2026.