Dec 2017 - NiceHash Exchange Hack - $64m (Slovenia)
“Hackers stole $64 million from NiceHash, a company that lets users apply their extra GPUs to mining cryptocurrencies.” "Users report that funds have been moved from their own internal Nicehash Bitcoin addresses to a single Bitcoin address controlled by an unknown party." “Kobal said that about 4,700 bitcoins were stolen on December 6th and that a hacker or a group of hackers with an IP address outside of Europe accessed NiceHash computers. Through that access, the hacker(s) obtained a NiceHash engineer’s credentials and used them to access the payment system.” “A hacker or group of hackers had been in a position to infiltrate our inner programs by a compromised firm pc,” stated Marko Kobal, CEO of NiceHash, on Fb reside. “We’re nonetheless conducting a forensic evaluation on how the affected pc was really compromised.” “Now, the company’s co-founder, Marko Kobal, has stepped down as CEO.” “In the aftermath the company decided to return the stolen funds through the Repayment program. 82% of the old funds was already reimbursed by January 2020. Their headquarters are based in Ljubljana, Slovenia.”
Further Analysis
NiceHash is not only one of the most popular mining brokerage platforms out there; they also function as a cryptocurrency exchange. The platform was founded in part by Matjaž Škorjanc who is known to have spread malware on millions of PCs, however the breach appears to have occurred through the other founder and CEO Marko Kobal who fell victim to a spear phishing attack. Although details are limited, it would appear likely that the CEO erroneously installed malware on a company PC and this enabled an exploit of what were effectively hot wallets on the website. The company has since paid back 82% and more through a repayment program, however having an extreme amount of funds outside of a proper cold storage raises many questions.
More Cryptocurrency Exchange Hacks/Scams/Frauds
Youbit Exchange Hack > > < < Confido Exit Scam
Sources/Further Reading
100 Crypto Thefts: A Timeline of Hacks, Glitches, Exit Scams, and other Lost Cryptocurrency Incidents (Jan 25)
Crypto-mining site NiceHash has a new CEO following hack - The Verge (Feb 24)
Founders of hacked crypto-mining site apologize over Facebook livestream - The Verge (Feb 24)
NiceHash - Wikipedia (Feb 24)
NiceHash Tools4Crypto (Feb 24)
Bitcoins worth $80 million stolen from NiceHash – FastnetHost.com (Feb 24)
Lessons Learned from the Biggest Crypto Hacks in History (Feb 26)
A Look Back on Some of the Most Devastating Crypto Hacks | Fintech Singapore (Feb 27)
Bitcoin Scams and Cryptocurrency Hacks List - BitcoinExchangeGuide.com (Mar 5)
SlowMist Hacked - SlowMist Zone (Jun 26)
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