South Korean tax authorities lost $4.8 million in cryptocurrency due to a leaked photo of a mnemonic phrase

The Korean National Tax Service exposed the mnemonic phrase of a hardware wallet by publicly sharing a photo, resulting in the theft of approximately $4.8 million in seized cryptocurrencies. This is the second major loss of seized cryptocurrencies in Korea, with the previous incident occurring in 2021 when police-held 22 bitcoins were stolen. The tax authorities have requested police assistance to recover the funds and have pledged to conduct an external security review.