BINANCE, CRYPTOCURRENCY EXCHANGE PLATFORM, WAS HACKED; $40M USD STOLEN

ORIGINAL CONTENT: https://www.securitynewspaper.com/2019/05/08/binance-cryptocurrency-exchange-platform-was-hacked-40m-usd-stolen/

Binance, cryptocurrency exchange platform, which manages the largest number of daily operations, has become victim of hacking, reported experts from the IICS cybersecurity course. The chairman of this platform, known as CZ Zhao, unveiled the incident through his Twitter account, adding that Binance is now under unscheduled maintenance.

Subsequent investigations have confirmed that the severity of the incident is worse than expected at first, as it was discovered that hackers managed to steal 7k Bitcoin (about $40M USD according to the current exchange rates). According to the cybersecurity course specialists, the assets were stolen from Binance hot wallet (Internet-connected Bitcoin wallet).

In a statement, Binance mentioned: “We detected a very serious security breach on May 7th; due to this incident, attackers were able to access a large number of user API keys, multifactor authentication keys, among other account details using a mixture of phishing, virus infections, and other hacking techniques; there could be more compromised accounts to be fund”.

Despite the seriousness of the incident, not everything is bad news for Binance; the platform managed to secure the fund of secure assets for users, intended for this kind of unpleasant situations:  “We will use this emergency fund to cover the damage generated by this incident, so no user will lose their virtual assets”, mentions the statement.

Binance announced that all operations on the platform are currently out of service; the platform apologized to the users and ensures that regular operations will be restored over the next week, as mentioned by experts from the cybersecurity course.

According to the specialists from the International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS), this attack represents a heavy blow against cryptocurrency exchange platforms and against Bitcoin; it recently seemed that its price had finally became stable, although the impact of this incident on its value is about to be known.