[ad_1]
A cyber scam, described as the “biggest” in cryptocurrency history, has decided to return $ 260 million in stolen digital assets.
The Poly Network cryptocurrency platform, which was hit by the hack, made a call on Twitter for hackers to contact it and “find a solution” to the stolen coins.
The platform said the value of stolen digital assets was $ 600 million, describing the hack as the “biggest” incident to date in the decentralized financial sector that relies on cryptocurrency for lend and borrow.
Additional action has been taken, including urging cryptocurrency exchanges to blacklist stolen currency data.
On Wednesday evening, Poly Network announced that it had received $ 260 million from the hacker.
In a tweet, he said he received data relating to three stolen cryptocurrencies, including $ 3.3 million from Ethereum, $ 256 million from Binance and $ 1 million from Polygon.
There are still stolen assets worth $ 269 million in Ethereum and $ 84 million in Polygon that have yet to be recovered.
What is the secret of the scam?
The hacker used a crypto wallet to post three pages of questions and answers, where he “interviewed” himself, according to Tom Robinson, co-founder of London-based crypto-data analysis firm Elliptech.
The hacker said he decided to return the stolen assets because he was “not very interested in the money”.
He added other notes in which he said: “I know people get hurt when they are attacked, but shouldn’t that make them learn something from these pirates?
He revealed that it had taken him all night to find a loophole to exploit. He said he was concerned that PolyNetwork would quietly address the vulnerability without telling anyone, so he decided to take millions of dollars in cryptocurrency to prove his point.
But he stressed that he didn’t want to cause “real panic (in) the cryptocurrency world,” so he only took “big coins.”
Robinson, who advises governments and law enforcement agencies on crypto-related crimes, told the BBC: “They (the hackers) may have only intended to steal money and assets, or they were acting … to expose the flaw and help the PolyNetwork platform be more strength and security. “
He added that the nature of cryptocurrency wallet technology makes it difficult for cybercriminals to take advantage of cryptocurrency theft, as anyone can see the money being transferred over the network to hacker wallets.
Robinson wondered if this hacker had stolen the digital assets, then realized the amount of publicity and interest there was, and realized that this money would be watched wherever he went. go, so he decided to return it.
How do cryptocurrencies work?
Cryptocurrencies are based on a cryptographic system known as a ‘blockchain’ which is a record of every transaction made with a cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin. The log is distributed to all network users to verify all new transactions.
The PolyNetwork platform works by providing data for many records, when people exchange one cryptocurrency for another, like the Binance exchange for Ethereum.
James Chappelle, co-founder of London-based cybersecurity firm Digital Shadows, told the BBC: “PolyNetwork is what makes it easy to navigate these recordings, and it’s ultimately a code-based program, and it has. always flaws and flaws. “
“This is true for banks or any other financial system. Unfortunately, what happened here is that one party discovered an implementation vulnerability and exploited it to trick the network into inappropriately transferring these digital assets. “
Similar attacks against other platforms have taken place over the past 12 months as they have targeted Earn Finance, from which hackers stole $ 11 million in February, and Alpha Finance, of which $ 37 million was stolen. the same month. of which $ 32 million was stolen in March.
Source link