Cyber Crime
US-Based Crypto Firm Harmony Lost Crypto Worth $100 million To Hackers, FBI To Probe The case
NEW DELHI: In the latest major crime in the world of decentralised finance, hackers took $100 million in cryptocurrencies from Horizon, a so-called blockchain bridge.
The details of the attack are still sketchy, but Harmony, the creators behind Horizon, claimed Wednesday morning that they had identified the theft. Harmony has identified an individual account as the offender.
The company said that they have begun working with national authorities and forensic professionals to identify the culprit and recover the stolen money.
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In a tweet, Harmony stated that it is investigating the incident in collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and various cybersecurity firms.
Blockchain bridges are important in the DeFi — or decentralised finance — area because they allow users to transfer assets from one blockchain to another. In the instance of Horizon, users can send tokens from the Ethereum network to the Binance Smart Chain. According to Harmony, the hack had no effect on a separate bitcoin bridge.
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Bridges, like other aspects of DeFi, which intends to reconstruct traditional financial services such as loans and investments on the blockchain, have become a favourite target for hackers due to flaws in their underlying programming.
Harmony has not explained how the funds were obtained. However, one investor expressed concerns about the Horizon bridge’s security as early as April.
The Horizon bridge’s security was based on a “multisig” wallet that required only two signatures to commence transactions.
Some analysts believe the attack was caused by a “private key compromise,” in which hackers gained the password, or passwords, required to access a cryptocurrency wallet.
It comes after a slew of high-profile hacks on other blockchain bridges. The Ronin Network, which hosts the crypto game Axie Infinity, lost more than $600 million in a March security incident. Another popular bridge, Wormhole, lost approximately $320 million in a different breach a month earlier.
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