Binance calls recent security breach 'complex attack' - NHKニュース

The world's leading cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, says a "complex attack" on its systems caused the security breach in which an estimated 6.3 billion dollars was stolen.

The company announced on Thursday it had suspended deposits and withdrawals as hackers may have compromised an engineer's laptop to enable unauthorized transactions. Withdrawals remain paused.

Binance said the following day that a subsequent investigation uncovered additional points of breach.

Co-CEO Richard Teng posted on social media that the company is recovering the stolen assets. He also noted the attack was not carried out by a single person.

Teng described the attack as "complex" and said the attacker "used a self-destruct mechanism that destroyed tooling and traces as they went, making it more difficult for us to trace and investigate."

Media reports say the cyberattack is believed to be the largest-ever digital asset heist. They say a North Korean hacking group appears to be behind the unauthorized access. Reuters news agency quoted a US blockchain analytics firm as saying the bulk of the theft happened in about 20 minutes.

Binance says it has frozen around 3 billion dollars in affected assets so far. Teng said in his social media post that the company is committed to covering all hacked losses through its own funds.