Tag Archives: cryptocurrency

How North Korea pulled off a $1.5 billion crypto heist—the biggest in history

The cryptocurrency industry and those responsible for securing it are still in shock following Friday’s heist, likely by North Korea, that drained $1.5 billion from Dubai-based exchange Bybit, making the theft by far the biggest ever in digital asset history. Bybit officials disclosed the theft of more than 400,000 ethereum and staked ethereum coins just… Read More »

Backdoor slipped into popular code library, drains ~$155k from digital wallets

Hackers pocketed as much as $155,000 by sneaking a backdoor into a code library used by developers of smart contract apps that work with the cryptocurrency known as Solana. The supply-chain attack targeted solana-web3.js, a collection of JavaScript code used by developers of decentralized apps for interacting with the Solana blockchain. These “dapps” allow people… Read More »

Inside a violent gang’s ruthless crypto-stealing home invasion spree

reader comments 70 Cryptocurrency has always made a ripe target for theft—and not just hacking, but the old-fashioned, up-close-and-personal kind, too. Given that it can be irreversibly transferred in seconds with little more than a password, it’s perhaps no surprise that thieves have occasionally sought to steal crypto in home-invasion burglaries and even kidnappings. But… Read More »

Researchers crack 11-year-old password, recover $3 million in bitcoin

Flavio Coelho/Getty Images reader comments 52 Two years ago when “Michael,” an owner of cryptocurrency, contacted Joe Grand to help recover access to about $2 million worth of bitcoin he stored in encrypted format on his computer, Grand turned him down. Michael, who is based in Europe and asked to remain anonymous, stored the cryptocurrency… Read More »

Hackers drain bitcoin ATMs of $1.5 million by exploiting 0-day bug

Enlarge / A BATM sold by General Bytes. General Bytes reader comments 68 with Share this story Hackers drained millions of dollars in digital coins from cryptocurrency ATMs by exploiting a zero-day vulnerability, leaving customers on the hook for losses that can’t be reversed, the kiosk manufacturer has revealed. The heist targeted ATMs sold by… Read More »

Most criminal cryptocurrency is funneled through just 5 exchanges

Eugene Mymrin/Getty Images reader comments 38 with 0 posters participating Share this story For years, the cryptocurrency economy has been rife with black market sales, theft, ransomware, and money laundering—despite the strange fact that in that economy, practically every transaction is written into a blockchain’s permanent, unchangeable ledger. But new evidence suggests that years of… Read More »

Ransomware victims are refusing to pay, tanking attackers’ profits

Enlarge / Holding up corporations, utilities, and hospitals for malware-encrypted data used to be quite profitable. But it’s a tough gig lately, you know? ifanfoto/Getty Images reader comments 44 with 0 posters participating Share this story Two new studies suggest that ransomware isn’t the lucrative, enterprise-scale gotcha it used to be. Profits to attackers’ wallets,… Read More »

Authorities dismantle crypto exchange Bitzlato, allege it was cybercrime “haven”

Getty Images reader comments 43 with 0 posters participating Share this story Federal authorities on Wednesday arrested the founder of Bitzlato, a cryptocurrency exchange they said has been a financial haven for Russia-aligned criminals engaged in ransomware and illicit drug sales on the dark web. Anatoly Legkodymov, a 40-year-old Russian national residing in Shenzhen, China,… Read More »