South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit, experienced a major security breach this week, resulting in a loss of approximately $4 million. Despite the significant impact, Upbit swiftly implemented protective measures to safeguard its users, recouping the majority of losses through their own reserves and halting all deposit and withdrawal processes immediately following the incident. The rapid response was aided by blockchain analytics, which allowed for identification of certain attacker addresses and freezing of 2.3 billion won in funds. Investigations are ongoing with the possibility of North Korea-linked group, Lazarus Group, being behind the attack. This comes after a similar security breach in 2019, underscoring the continued vulnerabilities in the crypto industry. Experts believe as DeFi platforms continue to expand, secure infrastructure is now considered essential rather than a competitive advantage.