Investigators are on the trail of hackers who spirited away more than US$600 million in cryptocurrency last week, watching the money as it moves around a system that critics call the Wild West of finance.
But they are playing catch-up: the gaming company that got scammed apparently did not even notice for six days.
The hack is one of the biggest to hit the crypto world, raising huge questions about security in an industry that only recently burst into the mainstream thanks to celebrity promotions and promises of untold wealth.
Photo: REUTERS
The sector has been beset by scams and hacks.
This week’s theft from the makers of Axie Infinity, a game where players can earn crypto through game play or trading their avatars, came just weeks after thieves made off with around US$320 million in a similar attack.
“We are seeing more hacks because there is more money in blockchain,” said Roman Bieda of Coinfirm, a crypto security company, referring to the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies.
Photo: Bloomberg
The industry should have learned the lessons from previous attacks but security was still being sacrificed for profit, he added, labelling Axie’s failure to notice the hack a “huge deficiency.”
REFUNDS PROMISED
The Axie Infinity attackers exploited weaknesses in the set-up put in place by the Vietnam-based firm behind the game, Sky Mavis.
The company had to solve a problem: the ethereum blockchain, where transactions in the ether cryptocurrency are logged, is relatively slow and expensive to use.
To allow Axie Infinity players to buy and sell at speed, the firm created an in-game currency and a sidechain with a bridge to the main ethereum blockchain.
The result was faster and cheaper — but ultimately less secure.
Hackers were able to take over the sidechain and empty its coffers apparently without anyone realizing, something experts say would be all but impossible on the ethereum blockchain.
The firm said it would recover or reimburse the funds, easing the anxiety of gamers — particularly in the Philippines where hundreds of thousands play Axie Infinity.
“Some of the Philippine community right now are going crazy because of what happened,” said Dominic Lumabi, a gamer from Manila.
Some feared the game would close and money would be lost, he said, adding that he was relieved Sky Mavis was being transparent.
But the firm faces a tough challenge to get the money back.
‘CONSTANT BATTLE’
Security firms are monitoring the stolen money as it moves through various wallets, as accounts are called in the crypto-world.
Blockchain data platform Chainalysis is helping Sky Mavis track the money, and Elliptic said it was investigating and alerting its clients.
Bieda from Coinfirm said that sooner or later the perpetrators would be traced.
“The bigger the amount, the harder it is to hide,” he said.
But even though investigators can see where the money is, there are tricks the thieves can use.
They can employ software that mixes the stolen money with legitimate streams, use exchanges with lax rules, or move their funds to a jurisdiction with no rules at all such as North Korea or Russia.
Any of those moves makes it much easier to transfer the cryptocurrency into everyday, spendable cash.
It is a “constant battle” between the thieves and those trying to stop them, said Bieda.
“Adoption (of cryptocurrency) is growing, more protocols and more solutions are created, but the pursuit of cheap transactions and profit means the industry sometimes... forgets about security.”
On April 26, The Lancet published a letter from two doctors at Taichung-based China Medical University Hospital (CMUH) warning that “Taiwan’s Health Care System is on the Brink of Collapse.” The authors said that “Years of policy inaction and mismanagement of resources have led to the National Health Insurance system operating under unsustainable conditions.” The pushback was immediate. Errors in the paper were quickly identified and publicized, to discredit the authors (the hospital apologized). CNA reported that CMUH said the letter described Taiwan in 2021 as having 62 nurses per 10,000 people, when the correct number was 78 nurses per 10,000
As Donald Trump’s executive order in March led to the shuttering of Voice of America (VOA) — the global broadcaster whose roots date back to the fight against Nazi propaganda — he quickly attracted support from figures not used to aligning themselves with any US administration. Trump had ordered the US Agency for Global Media, the federal agency that funds VOA and other groups promoting independent journalism overseas, to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” The decision suddenly halted programming in 49 languages to more than 425 million people. In Moscow, Margarita Simonyan, the hardline editor-in-chief of the
Six weeks before I embarked on a research mission in Kyoto, I was sitting alone at a bar counter in Melbourne. Next to me, a woman was bragging loudly to a friend: She, too, was heading to Kyoto, I quickly discerned. Except her trip was in four months. And she’d just pulled an all-nighter booking restaurant reservations. As I snooped on the conversation, I broke out in a sweat, panicking because I’d yet to secure a single table. Then I remembered: Eating well in Japan is absolutely not something to lose sleep over. It’s true that the best-known institutions book up faster
Though the total area of Penghu isn’t that large, exploring all of it — including its numerous outlying islands — could easily take a couple of weeks. The most remote township accessible by road from Magong City (馬公市) is Siyu (西嶼鄉), and this place alone deserves at least two days to fully appreciate. Whether it’s beaches, architecture, museums, snacks, sunrises or sunsets that attract you, Siyu has something for everyone. Though only 5km from Magong by sea, no ferry service currently exists and it must be reached by a long circuitous route around the main island of Penghu, with the
RSS