Poly Network: The Curious Case of the $ 600 Million Crypto Heist: 10 Point Guide

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Crimes Involving Cryptocurrencies On A Downward Trend, Despite Spectacular Thefts, Experts Say

New Delhi: Cryptocurrency investors were stabbed by a hacker who stole more than $ 600 million – before returning some of it. The hacker hit Poly Network, which handles cryptocurrency transfers, in one of the biggest digital money thefts. Here is your 10 point cheat sheet for this great story:

As of Thursday, some $ 342 million had been returned – still well below the total, but enough to spark furious speculation about the hacker’s motives.

In the messages embedded in the transactions, the thief insisted that they stole with good intentions. “I’m not very interested in the money!” they wrote, adding that it was “always the plan” to return the stolen funds.

Thieves usually try to cover their tracks by dividing the money and moving it – “sometimes using hundreds of thousands of consecutive transactions”. The returns began after SlowMist, an investigative company, claimed to have identified some of the hacker’s personal information, including his email.

Some investors would also consider it a “good deal” for the hacker to keep some of the money as a reward for discovering the security breach.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum have grown in popularity in recent years. Their combined market value currently stands at nearly $ 2 trillion, creating an attractive prospect for hackers.

Crimes involving cryptocurrencies are on a downward trend, despite spectacular thefts like this and concerns about their use by criminal gangs. A report released this month by security firm CipherTrace estimated global crypto-crime losses at $ 1.9 billion last year, up from $ 4.5 billion in 2019.

He cautioned, however, of an alarming increase in decentralized finance hacking and fraud, or “challenge” – a form of crypto-finance, including lending, designed to weed out middlemen like banks.

The Poly heist is part of that trend, with the company calling it the biggest hack “in challenge history.” “The imaginations of fraudsters in this industry are constantly evolving,” said Syedur Rahman, a British lawyer specializing in cases involving cryptocurrencies.

Stricter regulations increasingly force cryptocurrency exchanges to verify the identity of users, while law enforcement agencies are increasingly experienced in dealing with crypto-crimes.

Hackers extracted a $ 4.4 million Bitcoin ransom from oil company Colonial Pipeline in May, but the FBI was able to locate most of the coins and seize them.

With contributions from AFP

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