Thailand and the FBI jointly recovered $432,000 in cryptocurrency from a European hacker

Thai officials announced on Wednesday that they have successfully recovered over $432,000 in stolen digital assets from an Eastern European cybercriminal hiding in Phuket. According to local media, Major General Surapol Premphet, who leads the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) of Thailand, revealed that "Operation 293" successfully seized and returned $320,000 worth of cryptocurrency to Thai victims.

The hacker allegedly deployed malware to infiltrate victims' devices to steal authentication keys and mnemonic phrases, which are critical access credentials for cryptocurrency accounts.