In this decade, they’ve been some dark times, when the folks with the black hats decided to wreak havoc across the cryptocurrency space.
This article is a report of the notable ones that shook the space, moreso the article will be in the first-person narrative, to give the reader a slight feel of how the news felt like when it occurred.
“London-based Blockchain, innovation and research company Coinfirm has confirmed the movements of forty million dollars ($40,000,000) stolen by hackers from the cryptocurrency exchange company, Binance.
The May 7th hack, which saw seven thousand bitcoin (7,000 BTC) stolen from a single Binance “hot wallet”, marked the fourth major exchange hack of 2019 in which tokens were stolen, following; Cryptopia, DragonEx and Bithumb.In a bid to cover their tracks, the hackers wasted no time in distributing the tokens and placing them in separate wallets.
One thousand, two hundred and fourteen bitcoin (1,214 BTC) which amounted to six million, nine hundred and thirty-seven thousand, one hundred and forty-two dollars, eighty-five cents ($6,937,142.85). Another one thousand, three hundred and thirty-seven bitcoin (1337 BTC) were transferred to two new addresses held by the hackers.
Now Confirm can confirm that the stolen crypto funds have been distributed to seven separate anonymous digital wallets. This was further elaborated on Coinfirm’s official social media handles, which emphasized that all the stolen tokens have been moved, which also points out the underlying fact that the hackers wish to convert their stolen digital currency to fiat currency.
Although the identities of the hackers remain unknown, the latest discoveries have shown that investigations are still on and hope is hinged on the fact that, before the stolen bitcoins can be converted to fiat currency, they must go through a cryptocurrency exchange, which usually requires certain details of customer’s identity.
Regardless, Coinfirm believes that the hackers may exploit a lack of regulations and a far from convincing Know Your Customer (KYC) rules present in some cryptocurrency exchanges to their advantage.
Coinfirm’s Chief of Information and Co-founder, Pawel Aleksander has told Reuters that; “Exchanges are obligated to have to Know Your Customer processes in place, but in practice, many of them do not carry out this obligation properly. People can easily open fake accounts and deposit tokens to said accounts”.
In a bid to restore confidence, Binance has pledged to leave “no stone unturned” in search of the stolen tokens. Binance is also working hard, and exploring every angle to make sure that the security breach exploited by the hackers is permanently sealed.
In a statement made on the Binance blog, by the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Binance Changpeng Zhao, regarding the issue at hand as follows; “We are still investigating all other areas of the system to ensure no stone is left unturned. Furthermore, we have employed the services of at least a dozen firms and teams, who are at the forefront of cybersecurity and internet expertise to improve and make sure our systems are secured and impenetrable”.
The bad news is that this theft is a big blow to Binance, as it represents the image of a company not fully secured. The good news is that the seven thousand bitcoin (7,000 BTC) comprise only two per cent of Binance’s overall bitcoin holdings. The even better news is that the exchange will cover the losses out of its Secure Asset Fund for users”.
Now the one good thing that came out of that collection of misfortune, was improved and renewed security in the Crypto Space. Exchanges buckled up on every cybersecurity aspect and innovative measures were embedded, to checkmate nefarious activities of the “black hats”.
Ultimately, at the end of the day, the security of your digital assets still lies in the hands of you the owner.
