Crypto industry suffers 'largest bank heist in human history' as billions stolen in Binance hack

[Oggiman]

According to TRM Labs, which tracks the industry, digital assets worth more than $6.3bn (£4.7bn) have been taken from Binance by North Korean hackers. This would be the largest cryptocurrency hack to date - and one of the biggest in financial history.

The security exploit targeted Binance, one of the world's biggest platforms for trading digital assets, which said it was establishing the facts with urgency.

Deposits and withdrawals were suspended for customers - with the company insisting user funds were safe and all hacking losses would be covered.

According to TRM Labs an elite North Korean hacking unit called TraderTraitor was responsible for the theft - and it was completed in just 20 minutes.

That would make it the largest cryptocurrency hack to date - surpassing the $1.5bn that was stolen when the Bybit exchange was targeted last year.

Richard Teng, the co-CEO of Binance, said the company's "initial investigation suggests this security incident may have started with a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop".

"To be clear: the attacker did not simply use one engineer's permissions, and this was not a single 'one-click' action. It involved a more complex attack process," he said.

"Our investigation has not attributed responsibility to any individual. Our team hasn't stopped. We're working closely with law enforcement to ensure the matter is handled appropriately."
After Binance's security issue was identified, digital assets worth more than $3bn (£2.2bn) were frozen, which could prevent the funds from being cashed out by malicious actors.

But Mr Redbord said the attacker still controlled about $2.4bn (£1.8bn) worth of Bitcoin and Ether - the two biggest cryptocurrencies by valuation.

The company claims it has more than 335 million users around the world.

Bitcoin, the world's biggest cryptocurrency, dropped sharply in response to the news.

As of 1am UK time on Friday, it was trading at about $77,000 (£57,500) - falling by 5% over the past 24 hours. Some smaller digital assets saw their values plummet by closer to 10%.

 

[alimac]

Cryptocurrency giant Binance said on Thursday that $6.3bn (£4.7bn) of digital assets have been impacted by what has been described as the "largest hack in history".

The world's biggest crypto exchange said about half of those assets have been frozen with the help of other platforms, adding that it will "cover all losses".
Early checks show the incident may have involved an engineer's laptop that had been compromised, which allowed an attacker to make unauthorised withdrawals, Binance said.

Crypto giant Binance hit by hack suspected to be largest in history

According to TRM Labs, a blockchain intelligence firm that tracks the industry, an elite North Korean hacking unit called TraderTraitor was responsible for the theft - and it was completed in just 20 minutes.

https://news.sky.com/story/crypto-worth-billions-frozen-over-potential-security-issue-13605627

 

[Oggiman]

Bitcoin dropped about 2% to a six-week low of $77,646 and ether fell around 2% to a two-month low of $2,238.76. BNB, a token originally launched as Binance Coin that can be used to pay Binancefees, was down more than 8% over the past 24 hours at $694, according to market aggregator CoinGecko.

Crypto exchange Coinbase Global slid 4.8% while those of bitcoin buyer ⁠Strategy fell nearly 6% in extended US trading.

 

[Oggiman]

Hackers who stole a record $6.3bn (£4.7bn) from Binance used fake job interviews and a compromised internal AI tool, the firm has revealed.

Initial findings published by the company, which operates the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, said hackers gained access to its systems through "sophisticated, multi-stage campaign".

It said they used a range of techniques such as malicious software downloads to compromise the computers of Binance engineers and gain control over tools to drain its wallet of billions of dollars worth of crypto.

Binance called it a "serious and highly sophisticated security incident" and apologised, saying "this should not have happened".

In a post on X, external, Binance said hackers targeted its engineers using social engineering techniques.

These see hackers use approaches such as phishing to trick people into parting with sensitive or personal details, that can then be used to try and access their accounts.

Binance said as part of the hack, one of its engineers was contacted through a legitimate job-hunting platform and invited to bogus job interviews with fake company representatives.

It said the perpetrators used "more advanced and deceptive" methods to build trust with him, such as sharing social media accounts that contained personal images.

The engineer in question was instructed to download malware masquerading as an "assignment" during a second interview, that deployed malicious code with "obfuscation techniques" evading detection.

Binance said hackers then leveraged the engineer's compromised computer and a compromised internal AI tool in October to gain control over two other engineers' laptops, and execute the next steps of the attack.

 

[Janobi]

Hackers who stole a record $6.3bn (£4.7bn) from Binance used fake job interviews and a compromised internal AI tool, the firm has revealed.

Initial findings published by the company, which operates the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, said hackers gained access to its systems through "sophisticated, multi-stage campaign".

It said they used a range of techniques such as malicious software downloads to compromise the computers of Binance engineers and gain control over tools to drain its wallet of billions of dollars worth of crypto.

Binance called it a "serious and highly sophisticated security incident" and apologised, saying "this should not have happened".

In a post on X, external, Binance said hackers targeted its engineers using social engineering techniques.

These see hackers use approaches such as phishing to trick people into parting with sensitive or personal details, that can then be used to try and access their accounts.

Binance said as part of the hack, one of its engineers was contacted through a legitimate job-hunting platform and invited to bogus job interviews with fake company representatives.

It said the perpetrators used "more advanced and deceptive" methods to build trust with him, such as sharing social media accounts that contained personal images.

The engineer in question was instructed to download malware masquerading as an "assignment" during a second interview, that deployed malicious code with "obfuscation techniques" evading detection.

Binance said hackers then leveraged the engineer's compromised computer and a compromised internal AI tool in October to gain control over two other engineers' laptops, and execute the next steps of the attack.

I see this stuff all the time, and the same question arises in my own mind. WTF are they using their own computer for work purposes, or WTF are they using their work laptop for job interviews etc?!?

I work for a financial organisation, and my laptop is locked down more than Charles Bronson, I can't even charge my phone off it, and it's got more security features than the Tower of London.