Livecoin,
a Russian-based crypto exchange, has been hacked. The hackers managed
to change the rates of cryptos traded on the service to earn quick and
massive profits. That hack happened over the night of December 23-24.
The exchange published on its site on Christmas Eve that the service was
subject to a:
“carefully planned attack” that it suggested may have been planned “over the last few months.”
In that hack, the firm lost control over all of its servers, back
ends, and nodes along with the ‘new channels’ presumably referring to
various social media accounts. The clients were urged to stop using this
service, which includes not depositing funds, trading, or using the
site’s application programming interface.
Normally a hack of a crypto exchange
comprises of the theft of crypto from a hot wallet. That might have
happened as well although things became strange when the hackers went
ahead and changed the exchange rates offered on various cryptos. Reports
from ZDNet revealed that those behind that attack set the exchange rate
for BTC to $450,000, XRP to $17, and Ethereum to $15,000.
After changing the exchange rates, these hackers started cashing out
accounts which generated profits in the process. Furthermore, what is
strange is how these funds were transacted, leaving several questions.
Since hackers
are said to have cashed out massive amounts after the inflated exchange
rates, did they succeed in withdrawing cash or transferred amounts to
other cryptos?
In case they withdrew cash, which might seem to be one path, how did
they manage to get these amounts? Livecoin is not a large exchange. This
platform, before being hacked was listed as the 173rd
biggest crypto exchange in the entire world by volume. According to data
analysis, the exchange averaged $50 million in transactions every day
before rising to $805 million when the hack first happened.
Crypto exchange hacks used to be a dime a dozen just a few years back
but has plunged somewhat as many firms have invested in cybersecurity
to avert attacks. In that context, they still exist, and with BTC prices
exploding to record highs, hackers will mostly be paying a lot of attention to the market segment.
Other notable hacks include the theft of almost $150M from Singapore-based crypto exchange KuCoin in September and a smaller hack and theft of almost $10 million in crypto from EXMO Exchange Limited in the past week.
Comments
Post a Comment