New Delhi:
Cryptocurrency investors have been transfixed by a hacker who stole more than $600 million – prior to providing some of it back. The hacker struck Poly Network, which handles cryptocurrency transfers, in one of the largest thefts of digital monies.
Here’s your 10-point cheatsheet to this large story:
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By Thursday some $342 million had been returned – nonetheless far quick of the total, but sufficient to raise furious speculation more than the motives of the hacker.
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In messages embedded in the transactions, the thief insisted they stole with great intentions. “I am not very interested in money!” they wrote, adding it was “always the plan” to return the stolen funds.
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Thieves commonly attempt to cover their tracks by splitting the dollars up and moving it about – “sometimes using hundreds of thousands of consecutive transactions”. The returns started following SlowMist, an investigative firm, claimed to have identified some of the hacker’s individual facts, which includes their e mail.
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Some investors would also take into account it a “fair bargain” for the hacker to hold some of the dollars, as a reward for obtaining the safety flaw.
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Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum have soared in reputation in current years. Their combined industry worth presently stands at almost $2 trillion, generating alluring prospects for hackers.
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Crimes involving cryptocurrencies are on a downward trend, in spite of spectacular thefts like this one and issues about their use by criminal gangs. A report this month by safety firm CipherTrace estimated international crypto-crime losses at $1.9 billion last year, down from $4.5 billion in 2019.
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It did, nevertheless, warn of an alarming rise in hacking and fraud linked to decentralised finance, or “defi” – a type of crypto-financing, which includes loans, made to reduce out intermediaries like banks.
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The Poly heist is aspect of that trend, with the organization calling it the largest hack “in defi history”. “The imagination of fraudsters in this industry is constantly developing,” mentioned Syedur Rahman, a British lawyer who specialises in circumstances involving cryptocurrencies.
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Tighter regulations are increasingly forcing cryptocurrency exchanges to confirm users’ identities, though law enforcement agencies are increasing more skilled in handling crypto-crimes.
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Hackers extracted a $4.4 million ransom in Bitcoin from oil organization Colonial Pipeline in May, but the FBI was in a position to track down most of the coins and seize them.
With inputs from AFP