Lazarus Group Targets Bitget CEO with Sophisticated Social Engineering Attack

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen has revealed that she personally lost around $80,000 to a social engineering attack disguised as a journalist interview. The hack was tied to North Korea's notorious Lazarus Group and involved compromising the X (Twitter) account of a well-known crypto media outlet.

The attackers used this compromised account to impersonate journalists and reach out to Chen under the guise of conducting an interview. This type of attack is particularly effective because it exploits trust in familiar channels, especially during periods of market activity or after major announcements.

Chen's personal loss falls outside of Bitget's User Protection Fund, which has a value of over $464 million and was designed to absorb losses from incidents like this. The fund covers exchange users, not the CEO's own wallet.

The incident is notable because it highlights a vulnerability gap in the crypto industry that exchange security protocols tend to focus on infrastructure such as cold storage and multi-signature wallets. Chen's willingness to publicly disclose her own loss is also significant given that executives rarely volunteer information about personal security failures.