US Secret Service says it is helping to track funds stolen from Binance in $6.3bn hack
The US Secret Service says it is “working around the clock” with partners to help track funds stolen from cryptocurrency exchange Binance
The $6.3bn (£4.7bn) hack is thought to be the largest of its kind in history – our cyber correspondent breaks down what we know
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, says it has “begun recovering” some funds and believes there was more than one hacker involved in the “complex attack”
I’ve got a Binance account – can I check if I’ve been affected?
Analysts suspect North Korea could be behind it – one analysis firm says it has observed funds from this hack “commingling” with funds from another that has widely been attributed to North Korean actors
The regime has repeatedly been accused of using cryptocurrency theft to generate revenue to help fund its weapons programmes, our Japan correspondent writes
The US Secret Service says its investigators are working “around the clock” to identify, freeze, trace, and recover funds stolen in what is thought to be the largest hack in history – worth up to $6.3bn (£4.7bn).
The affected firm Binance is the world’s largest crypto exchange, which earlier said it had “begun recovering” some funds after yesterday’s attack.
Binance co-CEO Richard Tend said the hack attacked the firm’s own hot wallet by abusing something called “multi-signature protocol EIP-7702”.
This meant the thieves were able to bypass the usual methods of verification used by the platform – most of the money left Binance wallets in about 20 minutes, one expert told the BBC.
This did not involve just one person, and the hacker used a “self-destruct mechanism” to destroy tooling and traces as it went, Teng said.
Analysts suspect that North Korea could be behind the attack, with many pointing to the hacking unit TraderTraitor.
