PANews reported on August 29th that, according to Decrypt, Seoul police in South Korea recently dismantled a transnational hacker ring and arrested 16 suspects. The group hacked into government and financial institution websites to steal the personal information of wealthy individuals and used spoofed mobile phone numbers to bypass security systems and steal funds from victims' bank and cryptocurrency accounts, totaling $28.1 million. While the group collected data on 258 prominent individuals, including 28 cryptocurrency investors, 75 corporate executives, 12 celebrities, and 6 athletes, they allegedly targeted only 26 individuals, whose account balances totaled $39.8 billion (55.22 trillion won). However, the hackers stole cryptocurrency from 16 of the victims, with the largest single theft amounting to $15.4 million (21.3 billion won).

Financial institutions successfully intercepted 10 additional theft attempts targeting $18 million. BTS member Jungkook's Hybe Entertainment stock account was the target of a $6.1 million theft, which was thwarted by bank system anomaly detection and intervention by his brokerage firm. Through rapid police response, $9.2 million in stolen funds were frozen and returned.