Indodax, an Indonesian exchange, suffers a hack, losing $22 million, with blockchain sleuths tying the attack to North Korea’s Lazarus group.
Crypto hacks have been on the rise recently, with exchanges being the major targets. Another exchange, this time an Indonesian-based crypto firm, suffered a compromise on Wednesday.
Lookonchain reported that Indodax lost approximately $22 million in an attack today. The exploiter gained access to the exchange’s wallets and stole some of its funds in Bitcoin and Ethereum. Other assets include Tron and USDT, among other currencies.
According to reports, the hacker compromised Indodax’s platform, planting bugs that overrode the exchange’s security system and allowed withdrawals from its hot wallet. The exploiter moved and converted most of the stolen funds, Lookonchain revealed.
Specifically, the exchange lost 25 BTC ($1.4 million), 1,047 ETH ($2.48 million), $6.14 million USDT, 2.2 million MATIC ($849,000), and 1.4 million ARB ($749,600). At the time of writing, the hackers have converted the assets to $13 million worth of Ethereum, $2.56 million worth of Tron, $2.55 million worth of POL (formerly MATIC), and $1.41 million of Bitcoin.
Indodax Halts Operation
The Indonesian-based exchange confirmed the exploit in a tweet, stating it has temporarily halted operations for maintenance. The discontinuation affects its website and mobile platform.
Indodax assured users that funds were safe, and operations would resume once they eliminate the security concern. The exchange’s platforms were still dysfunctional at the time of the report.
On-chain data shows that Indodax moved funds from the affected hot wallet to its self-custody cold wallet. This could be a precautionary ploy to avert further incidents of exploitation. Indodax’s cold wallet holds over $400 million worth of cryptocurrencies, which could recuperate users that the $22 million hack affected.
Another Lazarus Hack?
Yosi Hammer, the head of security firm Cyvers, has attributed the Indodax hack to the notorious North Korean-based Lazarus group. He told BSC that the operation of the exploit is similar to that of the group of hackers.
Notable blockchain security firms also accused the notorious hackers of the WazirX $230 million exploit in July. The Lazarus group has been a long-standing antagonist to major exchanges, having been tied to multiple heists in the crypto sector. The Crypto Basic reported a $100 million theft from Horizon Bridge, tied to the North Korean group.
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