Binance loses $6 billion in hack

Hackers stole more than $6 billion in cryptocurrency from Binance on Thursday.

The heist broke the record for the largest crypto theft in history.

Multiple investigators believe North Korea is responsible for the breach.

Binance stated that the attack began when a hacker accessed an engineer's laptop.

The compromised device allowed the attacker to enter a service container.

From there, the hacker submitted unauthorized withdrawal transactions.

The exchange said it would cover all losses using its own funds and an emergency assets fund.

Binance assured customers that user funds remained safe despite the incident.

The company temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals while security checks were completed.

It also revoked authorization for the affected address and engaged law enforcement.

Aravind Srinivasan, head of large crypto market maker GSR’s systematic OTC business, called it the biggest hack in history.

TRM Labs attributed the theft to an elite North Korean hacking unit based on on and off-chain intelligence. Pangolin Intelligence reached the same conclusion after analyzing on-chain activity. An anonymous analyst at Pangolin Intelligence told CNN the team correlated the new data with previous known incidents involving the same unit. The analyst said the cat and mouse game had barely begun and that North Korea would likely use money laundering networks to cash out the funds. Chainalysis also reported high confidence that North Korea was behind the hack. The firm said it was tracking stolen funds moving across Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains. As of Thursday night in the US, a team of cryptocurrency firms had frozen about $3 billion of the stolen loot. This represented a frenetic battle to control the digital money before the hackers could move it. CNN reached out to North Korea’s mission at the UN for comment. Pyongyang has denied hacking allegations in the past. The FBI and the US Secret Service were also requested for comment. In past major crypto-hack investigations, the FBI has used on-call analyst teams to freeze portions of the money. If North Korea is confirmed as the culprit, it would align with previous patterns. North Korean hackers were blamed for the prior record-high crypto hack, which stole $1.5 billion from Bybit. In that case, the attackers took a significant portion of North Korea’s reported annual gross domestic product in minutes. Current and former US and South Korean officials say these hacking teams are a key revenue source for the regime. Pyongyang-linked hackers have stolen billions from banks and crypto firms in recent years, according to UN reports. A 2023 CNN investigation showed how the South Korean intelligence service worked with private experts to seize about $1 million in stolen cryptocurrency.