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Biggest crypto hacks in the world so far – from Binance to FTX

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Former president Trump unveiled a new crypto company earlier this week, World Liberty Financial.</li><li>Several of the key execs involved have faced recent lawsuits, including its general counsel.</li></ul>Alex Golubitsky, the general counsel of former President Donald Trump's new cryptocurrency venture World Liberty Financial, was fired from a different cryptocurrency company, then attempted to take it over, the CEO of that company alleged in court documents.On Monday, Trump announced he would be the face of World Liberty Financial in a livestream on X. While it's unclear what his official role in the organization is, he's listed in a company white paper as its "chief crypto advocate," according to a white paper <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-going-for-crypto-bro-vote-world-liberty-financial-2024-9">obtained by CoinDesk</a>. Three of Trump's children are also connected to World Liberty Financial, including his 18-year-old son Barron.Golubitsky, whose legal practice focuses on cryptocurrency, was fired as chief legal officer of a cryptocurrency company called Umami last January, according to filings in a case brought before Delaware's court of chancery by Umami's CEO, Alex O'Donnell.Subsequently, Golubitsky and another Umami employee appointed themselves to Umami's board of managers and attempted to "abscond" with the company's intellectual property, O'Donnell alleged in the suit.Golubitsky declined to comment.Cryptocurrency publications cast O'Donnell as a <a target="_blank" href="https://protos.com/defi-protocol-umami-finance-sours-as-ceo-goes-rogue-and-core-team-quits/">"rogue"</a> CEO attempting to centralize control of the company, and who <a target="_blank" href="https://flywheeldefi.com/article/bent-too-far-how-umamis-institutional">crashed the value</a> of Umami's token. In his lawsuit, O'Donnell claims that he was moving to ensure the company's compliance with securities laws when Golubitsky improperly attempted to wrench the company away from him.Last year, a Delaware vice chancellor ruled in favor of O'Donnell, finding that Golubitsky and the other employee were not members of Umami's board of managers, and awarding O'Donnell more than $375,000 in attorney's fees and costs. O'Donnell declined to comment.Golubitsky is not the only person involved in World Liberty Financial whose past has been called into question. Two other key employees, Chase Herro and Zachary Folkman, have a professional history <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-crypto-partners-chase-herro-zachary-folkman-lawsuits-jail-debt-2024-9">littered with debts and lawsuits</a>, Business Insider previously reported. Herro and Folkman's previous crypto venture, Dough Finance, was hacked this summer; the hackers stole over $2 million from users.Nor is Trump a stranger to legal proceedings. The former president and his businesses have been involved in more than 4,000 lawsuits since the 1970s, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/trump-lawsuits/">USA Today found</a>.In recent months, Trump has been attempting to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-going-for-crypto-bro-vote-world-liberty-financial-2024-9">appeal to the cryptocurrency community</a>, despite once calling crypto a "scam."Wednesday, Trump made a campaign stop at a bar in Greenwich Village, where he paid for hamburgers and Diet Cokes with bitcoin.

The lawyer for Trump's new crypto firm was accused of trying to take over another digital asset company

<ul class="summary-list"><li>An ex-Amazon engineer pleaded guilty this week to hacking two cryptocurrency exchanges.</li><li>The conviction is the first ever secured in a case involving the hacking of a smart contract.</li></ul>A former Amazon engineer this week pleaded guilty to hacking two <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/what-is-cryptocurrency">cryptocurrency</a> exchanges in a landmark case that resulted in the first ever conviction involving the hacking of a smart contract.Shakeeb Ahmed, who previously worked as a security engineer for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/amazon">Amazon</a>, will face up to five years in prison and will have to forfeit $12.3 million worth of stolen cryptocurrency, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-security-engineer-international-technology-company-pleads-guilty-hacking-two">a statement</a> from the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.The hacks, which took place in 2022, targeted Nirvana Finance and a second unnamed crypto exchange on the Solana <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/what-is-blockchain">blockchain</a>.Blockchain is essentially a digital ledger allowing users to store data, including financial transactions, in a decentralized environment. One benefit to blockchain is security because the stored data cannot be edited.Ahmed exploited a vulnerability in the exchange's smart contracts, according to the US Attorney, allowing him to submit falsified data that resulted in the contracts generating millions of dollars worth of inflated fees he hadn't earned.<h2>What are smart contracts?</h2>Smart contracts are <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-blockchain-how-does-it-work-explainer-2017-11#blockchains-could-eventually-replace-institutions-like-banks-and-law-firms-4">blockchain</a> programs that, like a vending machine, execute specified functions when predetermined conditions are met. For example, a landlord leasing an apartment could use a smart contract in which the renter must transfer a security deposit to receive the apartment door code.Ahmed was able to reverse engineer the steps needed to make the exchanges pay out massive sums by using specialized skills he developed working for Amazon, according to the US Attorney.Ahmed then attempted to cover his tracks by negotiating with the unnamed crypto exchange. He said he'd agree to return all of the stolen funds, less $1.5 million if the exchange agreed not to contact law enforcement about the hack, prosecutors said.After hacking the first exchange, Ahmed targeted Nirvana's cryptocurrency, ANA, exploiting a function of the cryptocurrency intended to inflate each token's price after a large sum was purchased. Using a workaround in Nirvana's smart contract, Ahmed could buy $10 million worth of ANA tokens at an artificially lowered price and sell them for $3.6 million in profit."Nirvana offered AHMED a 'bug bounty' of as much as $600,000 to return the stolen funds, but AHMED instead demanded $1.4 million, did not reach agreement with Nirvana, and kept all the stolen funds," according to the US Attorney statement. "The $3.6 million AHMED stole represented approximately all the funds possessed by Nirvana, which as a result shut down shortly after AHMED's attack."Ahmed stole over $12 million and "tried to cover his tracks by swapping stolen crypto for Monero, using cryptocurrency mixers, hopping across blockchains, and utilizing overseas crypto exchanges," US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.Representatives for the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.In theory, the benefit of a smart contract is to eliminate the risk of fraud by a middleman or, say, a broker. However, the program has been vulnerable to attacks by hackers.About $2.2 billion in cryptocurrency was stolen in 2022 from Decentralized Finance (DeFi) projects, allowing people to carry out financial transactions without needing third parties or financial institutions such as banks.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/28/technology/crypto-hacks-defi.html">The New York Times</a> reported that many of the thefts were carried out by taking advantage of vulnerabilities in smart contracts. Since smart contracts are built upon open-source code, hackers can make themselves aware of the inner workings of the software and take advantage of any vulnerabilities.

Former Amazon engineer pleads guilty to stealing $12.3 million of crypto in first ever hacking case involving smart contracts

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Sex-trafficking fugitive Michael Pratt vanished for 3 years — until a data leak led to his capture.</li><li>The leak involved cryptocurrency "wallets" he used to secure his bitcoin passwords.</li></ul>Four days before Christmas in 2022, Michael James Pratt — a New Zealander accused of running the most prolific sex-trafficking ring in US history, with at least 400 young victims — was thrown to the floor of his Madrid hotel room and handcuffed by Spanish police.As Pratt awaits trial in a Southern California jail, facing a possible life sentence, little has been revealed about how police located and captured him after three years on the run.But video of his arrest, tweeted afterward by Spain's Policia Nacional, shows the precise instruments of his undoing: four gunmetal-silver cryptocurrency flash drives.<div type="image" title="This image from Spanish police shows the Bitcoin hardware wallets that led to the 2022 capture of sex-trafficking fugitive Michael Pratt." height="1906" width="3360" msid="112444044" hostid="261" sizebytes="175268"></div>The four pieces of hardware held the passwords for $500,000 in bitcoin that federal prosecutors say he earned during his decade of running the notorious Girls Do Porn trafficking ring.Here is the story of Michael Pratt, the Girls Do Porn ring, and how a team of civilian supersleuths followed a twisty trail that began with these pocket-sized crypto hard drives and ended on that hotel room floor.Here, too, is a story of justice. Last month, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25022769-sdca-v-gdp-michael-pratt-bill-of-particulars">federal prosecutors said</a> that the trafficking proceeds they seek to recover include the bitcoins protected by those four hard drives. The money would be returned to the ring's victims."If there's a hero, it's certainly them; it isn't me," Charles DeBarber, a civilian cyber-intelligence analyst who spent eight years chasing Pratt, told Business Insider of the Girls Do Porn victims. <h2 id="eb5ec67d-c645-494b-8c02-b6bdf0a5d8c7">Fraud, coercion, threats</h2>The Girls Do Porn conspiracy ran from 2007 to 2019, and worked like this, according to federal prosecutors and victim testimony:Cash-strapped college students were pulled into the ring's web by answering bogus fashion modeling ads on Craigslist. "Cute Teen Girls Make $5,000 Today," one typical ad read, above photos of smiling young models in swimsuits and athletic wear. A series of friendly emails from "Jonathan@beginmodeling.com" eventually revealed that the job was for an "adult" shoot.When a prospective recruit demurred, "Jonathan," a fictitious name, would make a series of false promises. The job paid $5,000 cash up front for a 30-minute shoot with "an attractive male actor," the women would be promised. The video, they'd be assured, would be DVD-only, for the exclusive use of private collectors in Australia. It would never go online or be seen by anyone they knew.If a prospect still hesitated, she'd be offered more money, more false assurances. "Jonathan" would forward her the phone numbers of "former models" who were paid to say whatever it took to reel in a victim."No no no you're totally fine!" a fictitious former model named "Kailyn" texted one victim. "That's what I was worried about but there is absolutely no way anyone will find out."<div type="image" title="This image shows the original FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive poster for Michael Pratt, accused ringleader of the Girls Do Porn trafficking ring; the image shows three photos of Pratt and has been stamped &quot;CAPTURED.&quot;" height="2608" width="2500" msid="112444047" hostid="261" sizebytes="250368"></div><h2 id="afb077a7-7ae2-4e1f-b3ed-827e55f8c1a9">The video shoot</h2>Once a victim agreed to do a shoot, "Jonathan" — prosecutors believe several in the ring took turns using the name — would immediately send a one-way plane ticket. She would be flown alone to San Diego before she could change her mind.Victims remember being picked up at the airport and chauffeured to an upscale hotel. One thought it odd when the child safety locks were engaged during the ride.At the hotel, these young women, barely out of high school, suffered the first hours of what would be a decadelong nightmare.Of at least 400 women who recorded Girls Do Porn videos, more than 100 have told their stories in civil and criminal cases. Some describe being raped in their hotel rooms by their male actor before the shoot started — a "test drive," they were told.<div type="image" title="An excerpt from from Michael Pratt's 2019 sex-trafficking indictment describes how prospective victims would be lured by promises their videos would never go online." height="431" width="2500" msid="112444046" hostid="261" sizebytes="61726"></div>"Jonathan's" lies quickly unraveled. The promised pay would be docked by thousands of dollars for small imperfections in their appearance. And instead of 30-minute shoots, the women would be forced to film for six or more hours — however long it took to get five uninterrupted minutes of footage for each of five sexual positions.Heavy equipment blocked the hotel room door, trapping them inside with men who warned that if they didn't finish the shoot, they'd be sued for breach of contract and left to buy their own flight home.Victims describe violent ordeals that left them bleeding, vomiting, and sobbing. Their distress would be edited from the final video, though the editing was imperfect."I'm now known on the internet as the GDP girl with the tear tracks in her makeup," a victim who'd been filmed at age 18 said in March at the sentencing of Girls Do Porn webmaster and cameraman Matthew Isaac Wolfe, now serving 14 years in federal prison for sex trafficking"Stop being a whiny little bitch!" another victim recounted porn actor Ruben Andre Garcia shouting as she begged to leave. Garcia is now serving 20 years for sex trafficking.<div type="image" title="This image from the arrest of Michael James Pratt shows the accused sex-trafficking ring mastermind being handcuffed on the floor of his Madrid hotel room." height="1415" width="2500" msid="112444041" hostid="261" sizebytes="115340"></div><h2 id="51595724-4c1f-4cae-8a9c-1c93a943086f">A million views in just days</h2>Months after the filming, these graphic, hardcore productions went live. Videos went viral in as little as 48 hours, as 700,000 subscribers to Pornhub's Girls Do Porn channel clicked on 5-minute teaser clips that drove traffic to Pratt's site, where 100,000 subscribers paid $30 a month for the full videos.Federal prosecutors say Pratt increased traffic by forwarding each victim's video link to her school, work, family, and social connections. Victims attempted suicide after finding themselves fired from jobs, hounded from school, and shunned by loved ones."Before I knew it, my video had millions of views, and all my friends, family, acquaintances, and distant relatives knew," one victim said.Prosecutors say Pratt also uploaded details from victims' original "Begin Modeling" applications — names, emails, family addresses, and even their height, weight, and favorite color — to websites he controlled that catered to so-called porn trolls.The trolls churned up still more traffic and attacked "without mercy," as one victim described it."My mom would walk out of church and come back to her car to find notes in the window shield calling me a whore, slut, prostitute," another victim testified at Wolfe's sentencing.Even now, long after the 2019 demise of the Girls Do Porn website and its Pornhub channel, the videos remain. Victims say they still pop up when they Google their names."Ten years later, I am still receiving harassing text messages," one said in March at Wolfe's sentencing. "I received one yesterday evening while nursing my newborn."<h2 id="cb4cf0e5-5f06-4228-b203-e84fde0f1dfb">Unmasking the traffickers</h2>But while its victims were humiliated publicly and by name, those running Girls Do Porn remained anonymous for most of the years the ring operated.A tangle of fake phone numbers, addresses, and shell companies thwarted anyone seeking legal action. When the father of one victim emailed "Jonathan@beginmodeling.com" — the only contact his daughter had — he didn't reach Jonathan at all. Instead, he received a lawyer's cease-and-desist letter with naked photos of his daughter attached, federal prosecutors in California said in Pratt's 2019 criminal complaint.This is where a former US Army cyber-intelligence analyst named Charles DeBarber arrived.In early 2016, DeBarber was asked for help by a victim who wanted to know: Who had done this to me? Using publicly available data —including 2010 domain-name registration records and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-are-the-panama-papers-2016-4">the Panama Papers</a> — DeBarber unmasked Pratt, Garcia, Wolfe, and the underlying corporate entities. All were sued in state court in San Diego later that year."This is a very large, weird true crime story you kind of need a chart to explain," DeBarber said."We were able to find Garcia through his Facebook page, by reverse-imaging a tattoo that appeared on his shoulder" in the videos, he told Business Insider. Garcia was the actor who victims said told them to stop being "whiny bitches."<h2 id="ba4b8f40-8882-445c-9497-4e6e9b509bb9">A walk to Tijuana</h2>Girls Do Porn raked in some $17 million in subscriptions and content deals, federal prosecutors say."He would constantly punch holes in the walls and break computer monitors," Wolfe said of Pratt in his March sentencing statement, describing his "manic" and "terrifying" boss.Pratt "was making millions of dollars and was driving around in a Lamborghini, living in a multimillion-dollar house in Rancho, Santa Fe," Wolfe's defense lawyer, Jeremy Warren, said at the sentencing.Then, in the fall of 2019, Pratt fled his life of luxury, crossing into Tijuana on foot. Weeks later, a federal grand jury in San Diego indicted him, Wolfe, and Garcia. He was still missing months later, when a state judge <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25022749-girlsdoporn-original-2016-verdict">awarded $13 million to the 22 victims</a> in the 2016 lawsuit.In pleading guilty, Wolfe, Garcia, and three other Girls Do Porn employees implicated Pratt as the ring's mastermind. He faces 19 felony counts, including conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion.<div type="image" title="This image shows the first page of the federal indictment of Michael Pratt and three employees of the Girls Do Porn sex-trafficking ring" height="988" width="1770" msid="112444038" hostid="261" sizebytes="105734"></div><h2 id="c3b67f32-4fc1-470f-864e-3c65fd461402">Finding Michael Pratt</h2>Pratt vanished for three years.Federal investigators believe he quickly boarded a flight to his native New Zealand, where he visited family members and made quick stops in Hong Kong and Cypress in unsuccessful attempts to sell the still-profitable Girls Do Porn operation.He was somewhere in Europe when the indictment dropped at the end of 2019. "He didn't have any fake papers at the time," DeBarber told BI. "He was just Michael Pratt."But Pratt began using an alias and the trail went cold — except for one key clue.In the summer of 2020, the cryptocurrency world was rocked by a major data breach. Hackers exposed the names, addresses, and phone numbers of more than 700,000 customers of a company called <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.ledger.com/">Ledger</a>.Ledger makes <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/investing/best-bitcoin-wallet">cryptocurrency "wallets,"</a> small USB or Bluetooth devices that look like little metal thumb drives. They safely store and protect the lengthy digital passwords that cryptocurrency owners need to access and move their money.<div type="image" title="A Ledger cryptocurrency wallet." height="686" width="998" msid="112444042" hostid="261" sizebytes="46892"></div>Pratt, DeBarber discovered, was one of the Ledger customers whose data was hacked.He had used his real name to have a hardware wallet shipped to the W Hotel in Barcelona shortly before the indictment, the breach revealed. After the indictment, in the spring of 2020, Pratt used the alias "Mark Williams" to have another hardware wallet shipped to a Mailboxes, Etc., also in Barcelona."We decided, you know what? Let's go there and see," DeBarber said.The cyber-sleuth and the victims' lawyer flew to Barcelona in July 2022 — a trip DeBarber described earlier this year <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hunt-michael-pratt-phoenixsafe-ai-20zde/">on LinkedIn</a>.They had precious little to go on besides those long-cold locations — the W Hotel and the Mailboxes Etc. They also knew that Pratt liked American hip hop and collected pricey, vintage Air Jordans, based on what federal investigators had found searching Pratt's luxury apartment in San Diego.Once on the ground, the pair connected with <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-owen-94b278156/">Ben Owen</a>, a cyber-security expert DeBarber had met when they worked together in 2017 on the CBS show "Hunted." Owen's partner, intelligence expert <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/danni-brooke-a794083a/">Danni Brooke</a>, and their daughter Amelia Brooke, joined them.<div type="image" title="This image shows, from left, Charles DeBarber, Ben Owen, Brian Holm, Amelia Brooke, and Danni Brooke." height="1855" width="2500" msid="112444048" hostid="261" sizebytes="89892"></div>Owen located one of the few people in Barcelona who sold vintage Air Jordans. Her face turned pale when shown Pratt's picture. She had spoken to him recently about a $50,000 pair of size-11, 1985, 1st edition high-tops.Then a bouncer at one of only five nightclubs that played American hip hop said he'd seen Pratt there just a few weeks prior. Both the sneaker vendor and the bouncer described the fugitive the same way."They said he was portly and that he wears clean clothes but doesn't wash," DeBarber said. "And they said he carries a Versace bag full of money around his neck."He was living pretty recklessly," DeBarber added. "Who goes to a club with a Versace bag full of money, flashing it around? He's obviously not a Spaniard. That's not the kind of behavior I would expect from a talented fugitive."<div type="image" title="A photo of the Barcelona Mailboxes Etc. store where investigators found Michael Pratt's Swiss ID." height="856" width="642" msid="112444049" hostid="261" sizebytes="22712"></div><h2 id="c89f151f-ca77-45f0-b462-b2f78ba5e5bf">The best clue of all</h2>But the crucial tip DeBarber and his partners in crime-fighting uncoverd — and passed along to the local FBI consulate — came from that Mailboxes Etc.There, a very helpful clerk showed them the Swiss ID and contract Pratt had used to open his account two years prior. Pratt would use the ID — which featured his photo and the alias Mark Williams — just before Christmas when he checked into that Madrid hotel.There at the front desk, Pratt's ID triggered an Interpol alert, sending authorities directly to his door. Inside were Pratt's laptop, two cellphones, a stack of 50-Euro notes, and four of those Ledger wallets.<div type="image" title="Michael Pratt's Swiss ID and Barcelona Mailboxes Etc. contract." height="1601" width="2500" msid="112444051" hostid="261" sizebytes="79394"></div>Pratt was finally extradited from Spain in March. His next court date is September 6, when a trial date may be set. His defense lawyer did not respond to requests for comment on this story.These days, DeBarber runs the Baltimore-based <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7163927968531120128/">Phoenix AI </a>cybersecurity firm with cofounder Justine Li, a Girls Do Porn victim and plaintiff.Li's video was filmed in 2007 when she was still in high school. It was "Video Number One" when Girls Do Porn launched in 2009. Their company builds tech solutions for finding and removing non-consensual sexual abuse materials on the internet."I will be at his sentencing and I will be grinning," DeBarber said recently of Pratt. "I'm really, really excited where he is right now, and Dre, and Wolfe," he added, referring to co-defendants Matthew Wolfe and actor Reuben "Dre" Garcia."I hope they spend their time in prison wondering how did the women we thought we broke ever manage to do this to them."

A crypto data leak led the FBI to America's most wanted sex trafficking fugitive. Now, the victims want his bitcoins.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>North Korea's Lazarus Group laundered $13 million of stolen crypto via Tornado Cash this week, Elliptic said.</li><li>Funds from previous hacks carried out in November were laundered through the mixer. </li></ul>North Korean-linked cyber hackers have laundered $13 million worth of ether this week through sanctioned crypto mixer <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/tornado-cash-nft-us-sanctions-cryptocurrency-crypto-korea-assets-north-2022-8">Tornado Cash</a>, data from blockchain analytics company Elliptic shows. North Korea's notorious Lazarus Group funneled stolen crypto in 40 transcations into the virtual currency mixer Tornado Cash on March 13 and 14, according to research from Elliptic. The laundered funds were part of the $100 million of cryptocurrency stolen from exchange HTX and its HECO cross-chain bridge in November 2023."Following common crypto-laundering patterns, the stolen tokens were immediately swapped for ETH, using decentralized exchanges. The stolen funds then lay dormant until yesterday, March 13, when the stolen crypto assets began to be sent through Tornado Cash," analysts <a href="https://www.elliptic.co/blog/north-korean-hackers-return-to-tornado-cash-despite-sanctions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said in a note</a>. Tornado Cash and similar mixers obscure funds by blending tokens from diverse sources before transferring them. The service was <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0916" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blacklisted by the US Department of the Treasury</a> in August 2022. The department said the mixer had been used to launder more than $7 billion since it was created in 2019. Shortly after the sanctions hit, Lazarus Group <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1933#:~:text=The%20Treasury%20Department's%20designation%20of,proceeds%20from%20their%20illicit%20activities." target="_blank" rel="noopener">turned to Sinbad mixer</a> to obscure its funds, but US authorities seized Sinbad in November, forcing Lazarus back to Tornado Cash.Now, Tornado Cash keeps is up and running despite sanctions, as it operates on decentralized blockchains and smart contracts, putting it out of reach of authorities. Lazarus Group has <a href="https://www.recordedfuture.com/crypto-country-north-koreas-targeting-cryptocurrency" target="_blank" rel="noopener">orchestrated hacks totaling over $3 billion</a> in the last six years, per cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.The group <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/north-korea-hackers-lazarus-crypto-crime-venture-capital-firms-trm-2023-1">masquerades as venture capital firms</a> and banks to steal cryptocurrency. They pose as recruiters, targeting individuals with access to private keys, and use initial token offerings and social media to launch their attacks.

North Korean hackers are laundering millions worth of crypto through a sanctioned 'mixer'

I spent $101 and less than an hour setting up the Trezor Model One. The crypto hard wallet is surprisingly easy to use and comes with the benefit of being one of the safest ways to secure crypto assets.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>$3.7 billion was lost to crypto scams, hacks, and exploits in 2022, according to blockchain audit firm CertiK.</li><li>That marks the worst year ever for the industry, which lost $3.2 billion in 2021.</li></ul>Cryptocurrency markets lost $3.7 billion to scams, hacks and exploits in 2022 — the worst year for the industry and up from $3.2 billion in 2021, according to data from blockchain audit firm <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/01/03/2022-crypto-attacks-were-least-in-december-with-62m-lost-in-heists-certik-says/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CertiK.</a>While December was the least harmful month in 2022 with roughly $62 million worth of crypto-based exploits, more than $595 million worth of tokens was stolen in November, CertiK added. <a href="https://www.trmlabs.com/post/looking-back-at-2022-and-towards-2023-to-see-what-the-future-holds-for-digital-assets-policy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A separate report</a> from blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs also put 2022's losses at $3.7 billion and estimated that about 80% of the stolen funds involved attacks against decentralized finance (DeFi) projects. "With almost three times as much value lost from Web3 protocols in 2022 compared to 2021, it's clear that there's still a lot of work to be done to secure the Web3 world," Ronghui Gu, the CEO and cofounder of CertiK, told Insider in a statement.Gu added: "Centralized crypto platforms and exchanges took center stage this year, but if Web3 is to offer a real alternative to centralization then we need to double down on the basics: functionality and security."Among the notable hacks last year, North Korea's Lazarus Group made off with $625 million after exploiting Axie Infinity's Ronin Network in April. That followed the nearly $325 million attack on cross-chain service Wormhole in February. Ari Redbord, head of legal and government affairs at TRM Labs, told <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/north-korea-hackers-lazarus-crypto-crime-venture-capital-firms-trm-2023-1">Insider</a> that North Korea alone was responsible for over $1 billion of stolen funds. "When you're talking about billions of dollars and North Korea, you're talking about a country with essentially no GDP, so they've essentially created an economy laundering cryptocurrency and we know those funds aren't going to fund a lifestyle," Redbord said.He added: "They'll be used for nuclear proliferation or ballistic missile systems. In 2022, these hacks moved from being a law enforcement issue to being a national security issue."Crypto markets had a rocky 2022, with nearly two-thirds of its market value being wiped out over the span of a year, according to data from <a href="https://messari.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Messari.</a> The industry continues taking hits from the fallout of Sam Bankman-Fried's once-$32 billion crypto empire FTX, which caused widespread contagion in the last two months of the year.

$3.7 billion was lost to crypto scams and hacks in 2022 - the worst year in the market's history

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="11896045" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="binance" source="Orion">Binance</keyword> is building a $1 billion insurance war chest to counter a slew of recent <keyword id="11994582" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="crypto-hacks" source="Orion">crypto hacks</keyword>, Bloomberg reported.</li><li>The <keyword id="11893898" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="crypto" source="Orion">crypto</keyword> exchange has been setting aside emergency funds since 2018, and this fund is just a consolidation of those resources. </li><li>Meanwhile, Binance on January 29 restricted 281 personal Nigerian accounts with some at the request of law enforcement. </li></ul>Binance Holdings is building a $1 billion insurance war chest to counter a slew of recent cryptocurrency hacks against its trading platform, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-31/binance-builds-up-1-billion-insurance-fund-amid-crypto-hacks?srnd=markets-vp">Bloomberg</a> first reported Monday, citing an internal memo.The world's largest crypto exchange by trading volume has been setting aside emergency funds since 2018, Bloomberg reported, and this recent fund is just a consolidation of those resources. "At Binance we always said 'funds are safe,' and today the Binance Secure Asset Fund size acts as an effective safeguard as well as protection for users against such unlikely issues," CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao said in the internal memo. Trading platforms have recently been targeted by hackers as digital asset investing enters the mainstream.Earlier this month, Singapore-based Crypto.com confirmed that about <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crypto-com-400-customer-accounts-hacked-fully-reimbursed?amp">500 of its customer accounts</a> were hacked. Unauthorized withdrawals totaled 4,836.26 in ether, 443.93 in bitcoin, and approximately $66,200 in other currencies, the exchange said in a blog post.The anonymous nature of crypto transactions has been a source of attraction and frustration for various stakeholders. Regulators have said this boosts <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/legitimate-crypto-use-surpasses-crypto-related-criminal-activity-2022-1">crypto-related crimes</a>, including money laundering and terrorism financing. Meanwhile, Binance <a href="https://www.binance.com/en-NG/blog/all/a-letter-from-our-ceo-to-nigerians--our-commitment-to-user-protection-421499824684903365">announced</a> January 29 that it's restricting 281 personal accounts in Nigeria, with approximately 38% of these at the request of international law enforcement. Users in the African nation continue to use the platform to trade crypto despite the central bank <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-05/nigerian-central-bank-orders-closure-of-cryptocurrency-accounts">prohibiting transactions on crypto exchanges</a> last year."Protection mechanisms such as know your customer, anti-money laundering measures, collaboration with law enforcement, and account restrictions are in place to ensure our community remains protected," Binance said in a statement. "This is a global approach applied in every country."

Binance is reportedly building a $1 billion insurance fund to counter crypto hacks

Leading cryptocurrency platform <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/cryptocurrency/news/matt-damon-endorsed-crypto-com-confirms-400-accounts-hacked-and-funds-stolen/articleshow/89010819.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Crypto.com</a> has finally admitted that 483 users on its platform lost almost $34 million in various <keyword id="6195302" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="digital-coins" source="Orion">digital coins</keyword> owing to a compromise in two-factor (2FA) authentication. Overall, the unauthorised withdrawals had over $15 million worth of etherum, $19 million worth of Bitcoin and $66,200 in "other currencies". The platform said late on Thursday that on January 17, its risk monitoring systems "detected unauthorised activity on a small number of user accounts where transactions were being approved without the 2FA authentication control being inputted by the user". All withdrawals on the platform were then suspended for the duration of the investigation and any accounts found to be impacted were fully restored. Crypto.com said it revoked all customer 2FA tokens, and added additional security hardening measures, which required all customers to re-login and set up their 2FA token to ensure only authorised activity would occur. "No customers experienced a loss of funds. In the majority of cases we prevented the unauthorised withdrawal, and in all other cases customers were fully reimbursed," the company said. The company said that it introduced an additional layer of security on January 18 to add a mandatory 24-hour delay between registration of a new whitelisted withdrawal address, and first withdrawal. Crypto.com said that it is introducing the worldwide Account Protection Program (APP) that offers additional protection and security for user funds held in the Crypto.com App and the Crypto.com Exchange. Earlier Kris Marszalek, CEO of crypto.com which is endorsed by famous Hollywood actor Matt Damon, had confirmed that hundreds of user accounts were hacked and their funds stolen.

Crypto.com confirms 483 users lost $34 million in hack

The CEO of <keyword id="11118047" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="crypto-com" source="Orion">crypto.com</keyword>, a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/cryptocurrency/news/cardano-loses-ground-and-terra-gains-as-crypto-market-takes-a-breather/slidelist/88987641.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">cryptocurrency</a> platform endorsed by famous Hollywood actor Matt Damon, has confirmed that hundreds of user accounts were hacked and their funds stolen. CEO Kris Marszalek told the media that nearly 400 customer accounts had been compromised. During the hack, Crypto.com paused its users' ability to withdraw funds. "We have a small number of users reporting suspicious activity on their accounts. We will be pausing withdrawals shortly, as our team is investigating. All funds are safe," the company said in a tweet. Marszalek also reiterated in a tweet that "no customer funds were lost." Blockchain security and analytics company Peckshield, however, tweeted that Crypto.com lost about $15 million (around 4,600 ethereum). "The @cryptocom loss is about $15M with at least 4.6K ETHs and half of them are currently being washed via @TornadoCash," Peckshield tweeted. Tornado Cash is a platform that obscures cryptocurrency transactions so that these are harder to be tracked. Marszalek claimed that Crypto.com's 200 security professionals had created a "very robust" infrastructure and stated it had defence-in-depth. Damon recently faced backlash for a Crypto.com commercial where he compares investing in crypto to great accomplishments achieved by mankind such as scaling Mount Everest or space exploration. Earlier this month, reports surfaced that victims of a $200 million hack of popular cryptocurrency exchange BitMart were still waiting for their money even after over a month since the exchange was hacked. According to reports, BitMart had promised a full reimbursement to the victims of the platform-wide $200 million hack. Hackers stole various crypto tokens on December 4, after using a stolen privacy key to gain access to one of BitMart's hot wallets.

Matt Damon-endorsed Crypto.com confirms 400 accounts hacked and funds stolen

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A cryptocurrency issued by <keyword id="12197160" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="bitfinex" source="Orion">Bitfinex</keyword> to recoup losses from a 2016 hack has soared after authorities recovered $3.6 billion.</li><li>The "<keyword id="13137631" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="unus-sed-leo" source="Orion">unus sed leo</keyword>" token was up 51% to $7.41 Wednesday, according to Coinmarketcap data.</li></ul>A cryptocurrency issued by the Bitfinex exchange following a major 2016 hack has soared 52% after US authorities recovered <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/btc-usd">bitcoin</a> worth $3.6 billion and arrested two people.The token, called "unus sed leo", was up 51% to $7.41 as of 5.45 a.m. ET on Wednesday, having earlier risen as much as 59%. Its market capitalization stood at roughly $7.2 billion, according to <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/unus-sed-leo/">Coinmarketcap</a>.Bitfinex parent iFinex issued leo in 2019 in an effort to recoup some losses from the major 2016 hack, in which bitcoin currently valued at around $4.5 billion was stolen.iFinex <a href="https://www.bitfinex.com/wp-2019-05.pdf">said at the time</a> if the money was ever returned, it would use at least 80% of the total to buy back and then "burn" — that is, remove from existence — leo tokens within the following 18 months.Buyers flocked to the token after the US Justice Department said Tuesday it had <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/bitcoin-hack-bitfinex-crypto-justice-department-2022-2">seized over $3.6 billion of bitcoin</a> linked to the hack. It said officers arrested Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife Heather Morgan, 31, for an alleged conspiracy to launder cryptocurrency that was stolen in the attack.The couple have a strong presence on social media, where Lichtenstein also uses the nickname Dutch. Morgan is a journalist that has contributed to Forbes, and is also a rapper that <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/8/22923772/doj-irs-bitfinex-hack-bitcoin-recovery-encrypted-files-razzlekhan">goes by the alias Razzlekhan</a>.Morgan and Lichtenstein's lawyer, identified by Bloomberg as Anirudh Bansal, was not immediately available to comment when contacted via email by Insider.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crypto-winter-prediction-correct-call-alt-coins-buy-hedge-fund-2022-2?r=US&amp;IR=T" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">A bitcoin bull and investing chief overseeing $1.7 billion lays out how to tackle a crypto winter that could last for at least a year — and 4 cheap projects that will thrive when the halving triggers the next bull cycle</a>Bitfinex exchange said <a href="https://www.bitfinex.com/posts/766">in a statement</a> released Tuesday that it still intends to buy back and burn the tokens, should the money be returned."Bitfinex will work with the DOJ and follow appropriate legal processes to establish our rights to a return of the stolen bitcoin," it said.Authorities had long been hunting for the missing funds, after a hacker in 2016 breached Bitfinex's defenses and stole 119,754 bitcoin in more than 2,000 unauthorized transactions. Since that date, the bitcoin has soared in value, totalling roughly $4.5 billion.Lichtenstein and Morgan were both arrested Tuesday morning in Manhattan, New York. They are charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the United States, and could be facing 20 years in jail. They were later released on bail.

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