World’s largest crypto exchange hit by world’s largest heist - CNN
Hackers stole over $6 billion in cryptocurrency from Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, in what investigators believe was carried out by a North Korean hacking unit.
The hackers broke into digital wallets held at Binance, with the exchange stating its initial investigation indicates the hack went through an engineer's laptop, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions.
Binance said it would "cover all losses" from "the company's funds" and an emergency assets fund, adding "user funds are safe." The crypto exchange also said it had "temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals while security checks are completed; revoked the affected address authorization; [and] engaged law enforcement and blockchain intelligence partners to trace and recover funds."
Historic Heist
Analysts were shocked by the unprecedented scale of the theft. "It's the biggest hack in history," Aravind Srinivasan, head of large crypto market maker GSR's systematic OTC business, told Reuters.
It's the biggest hack in history.
North Korean Involvement
Multiple crypto-tracing firms attributed the heist to an elite North Korean hacking unit. TRM Labs attributed it "based on robust on and off-chain intelligence," while Pangolin Intelligence said it also believed a North Korean unit was behind the attack after "analyzing the on-chain activity related to this hack and correlating with information gathered from previous known incidents."
Chainalysis, another crypto-tracking company, said it was monitoring stolen funds "moving across multiple blockchains," including Bitcoin and Ethereum, and had "high confidence" North Korea was behind the hack.
A Pangolin Intelligence analyst told CNN, "I think the cat and mouse game has barely begun yet," adding that North Korea was likely poised to tap a network of money laundering organizations to try to cash out the stolen funds.
If North Korea is proven to be the culprit, it would be little surprise to US law enforcement officials. Pyongyang-linked hackers have stolen billions of dollars from banks and cryptocurrency firms in recent years, with North Korean hackers previously blamed for the record $1.5 billion theft from Bybit.
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