Hacks
Netflix announces new series on Bitfinex hack involving 120,000 Bitcoin
Streaming and production giant Netflix will soon produce a documentary series on the infamous Bitfinex hack — one of the biggest financial crimes from 2016 stealing 119,756 Bitcoin (BTC) — worth $72 million at the time. The Netflix documentary will be centered around a New York-based couple and their link to laundering nearly 120,000 BTC tied to the crime. According to Netflix, the documentary will be directed by American filmmaker Chris Smith with Nick Bilton as the co-executive producer. The announcement read: “Netflix has ordered a documentary series about a married couple’s alleged scheme to launder billions of dollars worth of stolen cryptocurrency in the biggest criminal financial crime case in history.” The plot is based on two main characters — Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather M...
Bunny and Qubit turns to DAO following $80 million bug exploit
The development team behind Bunny Finance and Qubit has decided to disband the protocol and turn it into a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). In an official medium post published on Friday, The Bunny Finance team announced that the exploit on Qubit that resulted in $80 million worth of loss has made it impossible for the team to operate at full scale. Thus, they have decided to disband the protocols and give authority to the community. As reported earlier by Cointelegraph, the Qubit bridge called X-bridge facilitated tokens swaps from Ethereum (ETH) to Binance Smart Chain (BSC). The hacker behind the attack managed to exploit a “logical error” in the X-Bridge smart contract that allowed them to withdraw tokens on the BSC chain without depositing any on Ethereum. pic.tw...
Golden Globes 2022 Winners: The Power of the Dog, West Side Story, Succession Take Top Prizes
The 2022 Golden Globes represented a truly unprecedented moment for the 78-year-old awards ceremony — for one thing, there wasn’t a public ceremony. Instead, in the middle of both a rising Omicron wave and an ongoing existential crisis, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced last Thursday that it would announce this year’s winners via social media on the designated night, during a private event. Thus, with pretty much the opposite of fanfare, The Power of the Dog (Drama) and West Side Story (Comedy/Musical) were named the best films of 2021 by HFPA members. On the TV side, Succession, HBO Max’s Hacks, and Amazon Prime’s The Underground Railroad were recognized as last year’s outstanding drama, comedy, and limited series. Jane Campion also won best director for The Power of ...
LCX loses $6.8M in a hot wallet compromise over Ethereum blockchain
Liechtenstein-based crypto exchange LCX has confirmed the compromise of one of its hot wallets after temporarily suspending all deposits and withdrawals on the platform. The hack was first identified by PeckShield, a blockchain security company, based on the suspicious transfer of ERC-20 tokens from LXC to an unknown Ethereum wallet. hot wallet compromised? @lcx https://t.co/uL5a7oCFfM — PeckShield Inc. (@peckshield) January 9, 2022 The probable hot wallet compromise was soon confirmed by the exchange as it announced the loss of numerous tokens including Ether (ETH), USD Coin (USDC) and other tokens including its in-house LCX token. Ethereum blockchain based assets such as ETH, USDC, EURe, LCX and other assets have been moved to the Hacker ETH Wallet: 0x165402279F2C081C54B00f0E08812F...
Metaswap Gas incommunicado as experts link MGAS price drop to rug pull
Blockchain security company PeckShield has alerted investors of a possible rug pull event after identifying a massive 46.99% price drop on MetaSwap’s MGAS token. The MetaSwap protocol allows nonfungible token (NFT) swaps over the Ethereum, Binance and Polygon blockchains. Following the unexpected price drop, all official accounts linked with Metaswap Gas — including Twitter, Instagram and Medium — were removed, supporting PeckShield’s claim of a rug pull. #RugPull PeckShield has detected that @MetaSwapMGAS soft-rugged, the stolen funds (1,100 BNB) are transfered to @TornadoCash (#BSC). DO NOT STAKE in this contract and if you’ve approved it, REVOKE https://t.co/b7sSsMz3ZE — PeckShield Inc. (@peckshield) December 27, 2021 According to PeckShield, 1,100 BNB tokens worth almost $602,000...
Hong Kong NFT project Monkey Kingdom loses $1.3M in phishing hack, launches compensation fund
On Tuesday, Solana nonfungible token (NFT) project Monkey Kingdom, which has received notable backing from American DJ Steve Aoki, announced via Twitter that hackers made off with $1.3 million of the community’s crypto funds through a security breach on Discord. According to its developers, the hack first occurred with the breach of Grape, a popular solution for verifying users on Solana. Hackers then used the exploit to take over an administrative account, which posted a phishing link in the Monkey Kingdom Discord’s announcement channel. Users who followed the link connected their wallets expecting they would receive an NFT but instead were drained of their SOL tokens by the scammer. Announcement on the discord hack pic.twitter.com/1r7svjlZcB — Monkey Kingdom (@MonkeyKin...
DeFi protocol Grim Finance lost $30M in 5x reentrancy hack
The decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Grim Finance reported $30 million in losses due to a reentrancy exploit of the platform’s deposits. Grim Finance officially announced on Dec. 18 that an “external attacker” had exploited the DeFi platform, stealing “over $30 million” worth of cryptocurrencies. According to Grim Finance, the hack was an “advanced attack,” with the attacker exploiting the protocol’s vault contract through five reentrancy loops, which allowed them to fake five additional deposits into a vault while the platform is processing the first deposit. Grim paused all vaults after the attack to minimize the risk for future funds: “We have paused all of the vaults to prevent any future funds from being placed at risk, please withdraw all of your funds immediately.” Grim no...
Indian prime minister Modi’s hacked Twitter account attempts BTC scam
The official Twitter account of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi got compromised earlier today, which was then used to share misleading information about the mainstream adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) and redistribution of 500 BTC among the Indian citizens. On Dec. 10, Modi said in a virtual event virtual summit hosted by US President Joe Biden that technologies such as cryptocurrencies should be used to empower democracy and not undermine it: “By working together, democracies can meet the aspirations of our citizens and celebrate the democratic spirit of humanity.” While the long-awaited Lok Sabha Winter Session, a parliamentary meetup intended to discuss the legality of cryptocurrencies in the region, did not conclude the government’s stance on crypto, hackers from unknown origins man...
AscendEX loses $80M following ERC-20, BSC, Polygon hot wallet compromise
Crypto trading platform AscendEX suffered a loss of $77.7 million in a hot wallet compromise that allowed hackers to access and transfer tokens hosted over the Ethereum (ETH), Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Polygon (POLY) blockchains. Soon after realization, AscendEX proactively warned its users about the stolen funds, confirming that the hackers were not able to access the company’s cold wallet reserves. 22:00 UTC 12/11, We have detected a number of ERC-20, BSC, and Polygon tokens transferred from our hot wallet. Cold Wallet is NOT affected. Investigation underway. If any user’s funds are affected by the incident, they will be covered completely by AscendEX. — AscendEX (@AscendEX_Global) December 12, 2021 According to PeckShield, a blockchain security and data analytics company, around $60...
What is an eclipse attack?
When an attacker targets a network’s user, there is usually a deeper motive for doing so. Typically, eclipse attacks can serve as gateways for more complex attacks and disruptions. 0-confirmation double spends A user is at risk of a double-spend if they accept a transaction with no confirmations. By principle, although the transaction has already been broadcast, the sender can still create a new transaction and spend the funds somewhere else. Double spends can occur until a transaction has been included in a block and committed to the blockchain. New transactions that have a higher fee can also be included before original transactions to invalidate earlier transactions. What’s risky about this is that some individuals and businesses are in the practice of acce...
Electricity customers fault DisCos move to phase out obsolete meters
Electricity consumer groups on Thursday faulted directive by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to power Distribution Companies (DisCos) to replace obsolete meters under their networks. The groups in an interview with newsmen in Lagos, urged the DisCos to focus on issuing meters to unmetered customers under the ongoing National Mass Metering Programme of the Federal Government. Adeola Samuel-Ilori, the National Coordinator, All Nigeria Electricity Consumers Forum, said the directive by NERC was not a priority for the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry. “The DisCos have a history of not complying with NERC’S directive and giving them power to take away customers meters under the guise of being obsolete is not the right way to go. “This will only lead to more customers b...
