The Drift Protocol says that the $280+ million hack it suffered last week was the result of a long-term, carefully planned operation that included building "a functioning operational presence inside the Drift ecosystem." On April 1st, the Solana-based trading platform detected unusual activity that was followed by confirmation that funds had been lost in a sophisticated attack that allowed hijacking of the Security Council administrative powers. Blockchain intelligence firms Elliptic and TRM Labs attributed the heist to North Korean hackers, who took about 12 minutes to drain user assets. The investigation revealed that the hackers had been preparing the attack for at least six months, posing as a quantitative firm and approaching Drift contributors in person at multiple crypto…