The world's biggest crypto heist is the latest feat by North Korean hackers who have spent years perfecting an arsenal of financial theft, social engineering and sophisticated cyberattacks. Why it matters : The suspected North Korean hackers behind the $6.3 billion Binance theft appear to have combined familiar hacking tactics with extraordinary speed and automation — raising fresh questions about how AI could supercharge their already sophisticated operations. Driving the news : Binance said late Thursday that its blockchain partners have frozen at least $3 billion of those $6.3 billion assets on-chain so far, and it believes the hackers gained initial access by compromising one engineer's laptop alongside other "points of breach." Several blockchain investigation firms have tied the hack to TraderTraitor, a group linked to the North Korean government's Lazarus Group collective. Binance co-CEO Richard Teng said in a video on social media Friday that the attackers also used a "self-destruct mechanism that destroyed tooling and traces" as they went, making it more difficult to investigate what happened. "This was a complex attack," he said. The big picture: North Korean government hackers have spent more than a decade carrying out financial heists and disruptive cyberattacks, and they have turned cryptocurrency theft into an industrial-scale operation. In 2016, hackers attempted to steal nearly $1 billion from Bangladesh's central bank, successfully making off with $81 million. In 2017, North Korea was blamed for the WannaCry ransomware outbreak , which disrupted hundreds of thousands of computers across more than 150 countries. In recent years, the country has intensified its focus on pillaging crypto exchanges in part because the digital assets can more easily be transferred and laundered across borders — although those attacks tend to leave more of a paper trail. The same North Korean hacking group, TraderTraitor, also set the last record for the world's largest c
Results for “crypto hack”
Alleged self-dealing by the president and his allies doesn’t look so good as corruption emerges as a key issue for midterm voters Government corruption a top issue for US midterm voters, exclusive poll finds Voters under 50 probably won’t remember the “ welfare queen ”. But she once embodied Republicans’ claim of the underlying reason for US societal decay: the poor are a bunch of fraudsters. Ronald Reagan introduced Linda Taylor to US voters at a rally during the Republican presidential primary season in 1976. A resident of Chicago’s South Side, Taylor had been arrested for welfare fraud. “She used 80 names, 30 addresses, five phone numbers to collect food stamps, social security, veteran’s benefits for four non-existing deceased veteran husbands,” Reagan said. “Her tax-free cash income alone has been running $150,000 a year.” The Qatari government gifted him a luxury jet , potentially violating the emoluments clause of the constitution. The UAE gained access to some tightly guarded, high-end American AI chips soon after an investment firm linked to its ruling family secretly bought a $500m stake in World Liberty Financial, the crypto company funded by the families of Trump and his chum Steve Witkoff. Rich people facing criminal charges have taken to donating to Trump’s political operations and then seeking pardons or clemency. Most recently, Wanda Vázquez Garced , the former governor of Puerto Rico, and the banker who paid her bribes, Julio Herrera Velutini, were pardoned after Velutini’s family gave a $50m deal to Alina Habba, Trump’s former personal lawyer, and donated $3.5m to Trump’s Maga Inc Super Pac. The first family is also making a killing from the government. The Pentagon lent more than $600m to Vulcan Elements, a rare earths startup, just three months after Donald Jr’s venture capital firm 1789 Capital bought a stake in the outfit. Powerus, a drone maker backed by Eric and Donald Jr is selling drone interceptors to Persian Gulf allies of the US that are
Binance exchange says it will cover customer losses as it scrambles to freeze affected assets, with about $3bn located so far Q&A: How big a deal is the $6.3bn crypto heist? Tell us: have you been affected by the Binance hack? Business live – latest updates The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange has been hit by a record $6.3bn (£4.7bn) hack described as the biggest heist in history, with experts identifying North Korea as the likely culprit. Binance said it would cover all customer losses as it froze $3bn of the affected assets. Continue reading...
A record-setting cyberattack targeting the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange has rocked the digital assets industry.
Binance halted trading Thursday after hackers allegedly linked to North Korea stole more than $6 billion, the largest crypto hack in history. Why it matters : The attack comes after a wave of high-profile cyber intrusions and data breaches during "Black October," when a series of security incidents and AI -discovered bugs triggered fears of a global crisis. Driving the news: Binance co-founder Yi He said on X that the crypto exchange had suspended deposits and withdrawals. "User funds are safe," she wrote. "Binance will cover all hacking losses." An estimated $6.3 billion were drained from wallets in the incident, Binance said , although the exchange and partners managed to freeze about $3 billion that can potentially be recovered. "This is unprecedented," said Kevin March, a co-founder of JPEG Trading, a cryptocurrency trading firm that closely tracked the hack to monitor market conditions. An initial investigation found linked the hack to a compromised laptop from one Binance engineer. That access allowed an attacker to gain access to Binance's systems to make withdrawals, the exchange said. Zoom in : Researchers from TRM Labs and Pangolin Intelligence found that the attack appeared to be the work of a North Korean hacking collective. "This was absolutely North Korea," Nick Carlsen, a senior TRM investigator, told The Wall Street Journal . Representatives of North Korea have previously denied allegations of hacking crypto exchanges. The country has turned hacking and scams into an industrial-scale scourge, focusing on crypto heists and a widespread practice of tricking Western companies into hiring North Korean workers . A Binance spokesperson said the exchange's security teams are "reviewing all relevant information with urgency." The big picture: If estimates hold up, the suspected Binance hack would be the biggest crypto attack in history. In 2025, North Korea-linked hackers stole about $1.5 billion worth of crypto from the Bybit exchange. Between the lines : C
The Department of Homeland Security asked an Icelandic hosting company to take down data obtained through hack The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) asked an Icelandic hosting company on Thursday to take down or limit access to data related to thousands of agency personnel, saying the content put them at risk, according to the request posted online by hosting company FlokiNET. The database “places more than 40,000 identifiable individuals at risk of harassment, stalking and physical harm”, the request said. Continue reading...