Category: Cybersecurity

MicroStrategy’s X account has been hacked, with malicious links posted to a fake airdrop of a so-called “official” Ethereum-based MSTR token. Users who clicked on the links were directed to a copycat MicroStrategy webpage that prompted them to connect their wallets and claim the fake airdrop. Once users granted the necessary permissions, the attackers were able to automatically drain their wallets. According to blockchain sleuth ZachXBT and anti-scam platform Scam Sniffer, losses from the scam have already exceeded $440,000. One user alone lost over $420,000 worth of altcoins, including wBAI,…

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Cyber hackers backed by North Korea carried out a theft of $1.7bn (£1.4bn) of crypto in 2022, taking the previous record of cryptocurrency threat up by at least four times, according to a report by a blockchain analysis firm. The past year was on record “the biggest year ever for crypto hacking”, Chainalysis said in its report. Isolated in the global market and reeling under international sanctions, cybercriminals in North Korea are allegedly turning to crypto theft to aid its booming nuclear arsenal. “For context, North Korea’s total exports in…

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Illicit use of cryptocurrencies hit a record US$20.1 billion (S$26.6 billion) last year as transactions involving companies targeted by US sanctions skyrocketed, data from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis showed on Thursday (Jan 12). The cryptocurrency market floundered in 2022, as risk appetite diminished and various crypto firms collapsed. Investors were left with large losses and regulators stepped up calls for more consumer protection. Even as overall crypto transaction volumes fell, the value of crypto transactions related to illicit activity rose for the second year running, Chainalysis said. Transactions associated with…

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More than 350 fraudulent cryptocurrency tokens were created per day this year, defrauding millions of investors, according to blockchain risk monitoring firm Solidus Labs. From the start of the year to Dec. 1, 117,629 “scam tokens” were deployed, according to Solidus’ 2022 “Rug Pull Report.” That’s a 41% increase from the nearly 83,400 scam tokens that Solidus detected in 2021. The report claims that BNB Chain harbors the greatest number of scam tokens, with 12% of all BEP-20 tokens being fraudulent. The Ethereum network was second, with a purported 8%…

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In a series of continued exploits and hacks that the crypto industry has been experiencing as of late, the Nomad bridge hacked news doesn’t come as a shocking surprise. Nomad, a cross-blockchain transfer bridge, was recently exploited and drained for $200 million. The current market crash, alongside NFTs crashing to the floor, made crypto enthusiasts cautious to invest in new cryptocurrency releases. While the top exchanges are listing new cryptos each day, hacks like these create an air of panic among investors. Let’s take a look at how the nomad…

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The interest in cryptocurrencies is diminishing worldwide; the NFTs market is dwindling, and Bitcoin is experiencing the biggest price drop in 11 years. Yet, cybercriminals continue to make billions by targeting various crypto projects. According to the data analyzed by the Atlas VPN team, based on the numbers provided by Slowmist Hacked, cybercriminals looted $1.97 billion from 175 crypto project hacks in the first half of 2022. The Ethereum ecosystem suffered the most, with more than $1 billion stolen in 32 events. Monetary losses were calculated based on the conversion…

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The decentralized finance (DeFi) space has been rife with hacks, exploits and scams so far this year, with over $1.6 billion in crypto stolen from users, surpassing the total amount stolen in 2020 and 2021 combined. Analysis from blockchain security firm CertiK revealed the statistics on Monday showing the month of March having the most value stolen at $719.2 million, over $200 million more than what was stolen in all of 2020. The March figure is largely due to the Ronin Bridge exploit where attackers made off with over $600…

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A self-styled “grey hat” hacker figured out how to trick Ethereum scaling solution Optimism into effectively printing unlimited Ether earlier this month. Software engineer Jay Freeman (who goes by Saurik online) didn’t leverage the exploit. Instead, he reported the issue to Optimism’s dev team, who paid him a $2-million bug bounty. Freeman is probably best known for his work on Cydia, the app store for jailbroken iPhones. However, more recently he’s been looking for bugs on blockchains. According to a breakdown on Freemans’ website, he discovered the glitch while looking…

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PayBito is a bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange for major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin, Ethereum, HCX, Litecoin, Ethereum Classic. The exchange is operated by global blockchain and IT services company HashCash. LockBit ransomware operators claim to have stolen customers’ data from the PayBito crypto exchange, the name of the company was published on the gang’s Tor leak site. Lockbit ransomware operators claim to have stolen a database containing personal data belonging to more than 100,000 customers worldwide. Read more: securityaffairs.co

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Some UK ministers of parliament are calling for greater protection of citizens as a perceived “crypto craze” is encouraging people with little knowledge of investing to enter this new sector. Vulnerable young people are especially in danger according to an article on inews, and the particular dangers that raise most concern are those of cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Some niches within the cryptocurrency sector are singled out as areas where vulnerable people can lose their money. Fan tokens are one such area. The cryptocurrency Chiliz (CHZ) and all the associated separate…

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A cryptocurrency inspired by Squid Game successfully enticed enough investors to see its value soar to over $2,800… before its creators cashed out and vanished. The cryptocurrency called $SQUID, which wasn’t officially sanctioned by Netflix, launched in late October and rose up to 310,000 percent in value within just a few days. It was sold supposedly as a way to play an upcoming online game based on the South Korean series, in which people buried in debt are forced to play a deadly game. At 5:40AM on Monday morning, however,…

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The largest hack in recorded history took place yesterday when attackers exploited a vulnerability that could change the “keeper role” of a blockchain contract and make any transaction such as a withdrawal, according to a Medium post by Poly Network. Poly Network, a platform that looks to connect different blockchains so that they can work together, confirmed that the vulnerability was due to the leakage of a keeper’s private key. In a tweet thread, SlowMist confirmed that over $610m was stolen. The security team has also confirmed that it “has…

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More than $760 million worth of Bitcoin, stolen from cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex in 2016, were moved on Wednesday to new accounts. The funds were moved in tens of transactions ranging from 1 to as much as 1,200 bitcoin (BTC) at a time. According to a summary of recent transactions put together by The Record using data from blockchain tracking services like Whale Alert and BTCparsers, the transferred sum ranges from 10057.5798 BTC (per Whale Alert) to 12230.08861 BTC (per BTCParsers). The moved funds represent around 10% of the sum stolen…

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