Fortune favors hackers as Crypto.com flags ‘suspicious activity’

[ad_1]

With a message on Twitter and complaints of locked accounts, Crypto.com announced that it was the first major exchange hacked in 2022.

The announcement was posted on the night just before midnight, with updates rolling in throughout the day.

We have a small number of users reporting suspicious activity on their accounts.

We will be suspending withdrawals shortly as our team is investigating. All funds are safe.

— Crypto.com (@cryptocom) January 17, 2022

Hong Kong’s centralized exchange – known for its Matt Demon advertisements and staking products – has 190 million active users, an unknown number of whom were banned from trading when the hack was announced.

Some users pointed to the ironic nature of the misfortune: the same crypto.com that bought the naming rights to the LA Staples Center for $700 million locked up customers in an attempt to stop a leak of funds.

“Matt Damon Pulled rug,” wrote one Twitter user, @FPSlebowski. The user appears to belong to the NeoTokyoCitdel NFT community, a group that values ​​ownership and belonging in a futuristic, cyberpunk online world.

“The Bourne Identity (Stolen)”

Hackers have taken over the entire balance or large parts of user accounts.

Matt Damon mat pulled.

— Lebowski | Citizen #1671 (@FPSlebowski) January 17, 2022

To assess the damage, the site said in a Tweet that users would be prevented from withdrawing funds. Many Twitter Reddit and forum users also reported that two-factor authentication was down even after Crypto.com gave the go-ahead around 1pm EST. Some even sent screenshots showing that thousands of dollars in ETH had been stolen.

“Earlier today, a small number of users experienced unauthorized activity in their accounts. All funds are safe. With great care, the security of all accounts is tightened, forcing users to: re-login to their App & Exchange accounts; Reset their 2FA,” Crypto.com said in a post.

Even though Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek wrote that “all funds were safe” and at 1:30 p.m. EST “withdrawals resumed” while users were still reporting issues.

And Auld Lang Syne

The alleged hack was one of many attacks in the crypto industry over the past 12 months. On October 1, 2021, Coinbase announced that the funds of 6,000 users had been hacked after hackers used a loophole in the SMS recovery SMS process.

In August, PolyNetwork published an infamous “please return the money” letter to the hacker who stole over $600 million from the exchange. Bitmrt lost around $200 million by the end of the year in a single hack.

Immunefi.com, a crypto security firm, found that in 2021 alone, $2.66 billion was lost to hacks. Other companies put that figure higher at $4 billion or more.

$CRO, the exchange coin, is down -4.52% at the time of today’s writing and down -9.68% overall this week.

$CRO is down on the news

Crypto.com and its representatives have not responded at the time of writing.

This is a developing story.

Intensely energetic journalist who finds inspiration by following breaking news and covering the collision of Silicon Valley and Wall Street. Experienced in news writing, digital media production for online and print publications, newspapers and magazines, as well as editing and editing press releases. He studied history at the University of Delaware and wrote for the Review. Email me at [email protected] with story ideas, questions, or just to say hello.

[ad_2]