Joseph James O’Connor, a 23-year-old British citizen extradited from Spain to the United States on April 26, pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including hacking the social media platform Twitter in 2020. O’Connor, who also uses the online name PlugwalkJoe, has been charged with stealing cryptocurrencies worth $794,000 from a Manhattan-based company through a SIM Swap attack. U.S. prosecutors said O’Connor would forfeit the funds and pay his victims restitution. Besides,...
Read More »Over $100 Million Worth of Crypto Lost in April due to Hacks and Exploits: CertiK
According to the blockchain and smart contract security firm Certified Kernel Tech (better known as CertiK), crypto-related exploits, hacks, and scams in April resulted in losses worth $103 million. The figures for last month are a lot less than the $211 million worth of digital assets which wrongdoers siphoned throughout March 2023. Summarizing the Incidents in April CertiK estimated that the total amount hackers managed to drain last month from crypto projects was...
Read More »CertiK and zk-Sync DEX Merlin Explore $2M Reimbursement Plan for Rugpull Victims
Blockchain security firm CertiK and zk-Sync decentralized exchange (DEX) Merlin are working towards a plan to reimburse users affected by a recent exploit that drained almost $2 million from the latter. Merlin revealed on Thursday that the incident, which was widely believed to be an exploit, was, in fact, a rug pull by several rogue members of its back-end developer team, who manipulated the protocol’s code to achieve their goal. CertiK and Merlin to Compensate Victims...
Read More »zkSync DEX Merlin Exploited for Over $1.8M
Ethereum-based decentralized exchange (DEX) Merlin, which uses zero-knowledge sync (zkSync), has lost more than $1.8 million in a liquidity pool exploit hours after smart contract security firm CertiK audited its code.The hack occurred on Wednesday morning during the public sale of Merlin’s native token, MAGE, with the attacker siphoning several assets, including USD Coin (USDC), Ether (ETH), and other illiquid tokens. Merlin’s LP Drained After Code Audit A few hours after...
Read More »US Treasury Sanctions Individuals Connected to Lazarus Group
The United States Department of Treasury sanctioned three individuals who helped the notorious hackers Lazarus Group to process the conversion of stolen cryptocurrency to fiat, allegedly for the funding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) illicit weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile programs. An earlier report by Chainalysis claimed that Lazarus Group was responsible for crypto theft worth about $1.7 billion in 2022. 3 China-based OTC...
Read More »KuCoin’s Twitter Account Hack Led to Asset Losses Worth Over $22,000
KuCoin’s Twitter account was briefly compromised, causing the platform’s users to lose over 22,000 USDT to hackers through fake activity. The crypto exchange was able to recover its account and promised to reimburse affected users. KuCoin revealed that hackers took over its Twitter account for 45 minutes to promote a fake activity on Monday, April 24. While the incident was brief, the company said that it identified 22 transactions in connection with the fraudulent activity,...
Read More »MetaMask Shuts Down Wallet Exploit Claims: Report
Web3 wallet provider, MetaMask took Twitter to deny claims that a “massive wallet-draining operation” originated from an exploit of its wallet. The update comes after Taylor Mohanan alleged that an attacker was “sending” transactions via MetaMask, draining crypto from long-time users and employees. Mohanan, who also happens to be a MetaMask developer, later confirmed that the attack was not MetaMask-specific. The “sophisticated” heist was first discovered by Monahan early...
Read More »Stablecoins Worth $600k From 2021 DAO Maker Hack Sent Via Tornado Cash
Tornado Cash has, once again, found itself as the nexus of pilfered funds from a DeFi protocol. An Ethereum wallet address associated with the exploiter of the DAO Maker breach from 2021 sent $600,000 worth of DAI stablecoin through the controversial coin mixer. According to the blockchain security firm, PeckShield, the wallet had been dormant for more than 200 days. The movement was detected nearly seven months after another wallet linked with the exploiter transferred...
Read More »Here’s How SushiSwap Plans to Refund Users After $3.3 Million Hack
Ethereum-based decentralized exchange (DEX) SushiSwap released an update about its plans to return stolen funds to users affected by the $3.3 million exploit over the weekend. According to an announcement from the exchange’s official Twitter handle, users whose assets were taken by white hat security teams would be refunded quicker than those who lost theirs to the black hat hackers. The $3.3 Million SushiSwap Hack Recall that the popular decentralized exchange was exploited...
Read More »Crypto Exchange GDAC Halts Deposits and Withdawals Following $13 Million Hack
Hackers drained almost $13 million worth of digital assets from the South Korean cryptocurrency platform GDAC. This is the latest in a string of setbacks the industry went through. The Latest Victim The exchange’s team notified its users on April 9 that hackers exploited the Gdac Hot Wallet and transferred a significant amount of cryptocurrencies to an unidentified wallet. They stole over 60 BTC, 350.5 ETH, 10,000,000 WEMIX, and 220,000 USDT (which accounted for around 23%...
Read More »