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Poly Network: Strangers steal up to $ 600 million worth of cryptocurrencies

2021-08-11T08:33:48.941Z


It could be the biggest crypto money heist to date: Criminal hackers stole more than half a billion euros in an online robbery. The company concerned asks them to return them.


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Golden Bitcoin as a symbol for crypto money: "Dear Hackers"

Photo: Nicolas Economou / imago images / NurPhoto

In an attack on the systems of the Poly Network company, criminals apparently stole cryptocurrencies worth up to 600 million dollars (510 million euros). The company announced on Tuesday via Twitter that strangers had cracked its security precautions and redirected the deposits of "tens of thousands" customers to accounts they controlled. According to the company, it was the biggest theft in the history of cryptocurrencies.

It is now trying to persuade the attackers to return their prey. "Dear hackers," Poly Network wrote on Twitter, "we would like to get in touch with you and ask you to return the assets you hacked." The company continued, "The authorities in each country will consider your wrongdoing a serious economic crime and you will be prosecuted." The hackers should speak to the company "to find a solution."

In a series of tweets, the company, which specializes in the cross-system transfer of cryptocurrencies, called on other companies in the industry to exclude so-called tokens that originate from certain addresses from trading.

Poly Network apparently ascribes these addresses to the perpetrators and tries in this way to prevent them from shifting the stolen amounts of money to their own accounts or converting them into conventional currencies.

Some providers immediately began to monitor the flow of funds for appropriate transfers.

The CEO of the blockchain platform Tether said his company has already frozen cryptocurrencies worth $ 33 million that came from the hack.

Poly Network, the US Department of Justice and the FBI did not immediately respond to inquiries from the AFP news agency.

The IT security researcher and Ethereum expert Mudit Gupta describes the case as a “traditional hack by a crypto start-up” and says that it is probably “the biggest crypto hack”.

According to a report by the company CipherTrace, cryptocurrencies worth a total of $ 432 million were lost through theft, hacker attacks and fraud this year up to and including April.

mak / AFP

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2021-08-11

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