Binance has been doing well in the wake of a security breach that resulted in the theft of $570 million worth of BNB tokens. Now, the company’s boss, Changpeng Zhao, referred to CZ on the Internet, has offered some assurances that his company is on top of the problem and police authorities and Binance sleuths are closing in on the people, or person, behind the attack in the first place.
Changpeng Zhao Confident in the Success of Investigation
CZ spoke to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” detailing the fallout of the security breach that resulted in the theft of roughly 2 million tokens. Binance has been able to immediately block the exploit. CZ confirmed that from 80% to 90% of the amount that was being stolen was frozen by the blockchain.
“The actual loss of it was much smaller,” CZ told the media. Binance’s executive similarly confirmed that the company is already working with authorities around the globe to help narrow down the culprits’ identity. Detecting hackers in such a major bust would be an important step forward for the company and cryptocurrency security in general.
The team is still chasing, though, and is in the process of “narrowing down the perpetrators,” CZ added, choosing his language carefully. However, the fact that Binance was hacked is indicative that cryptocurrency security still needs to go some way.
If the biggest companies can be hacked resulting in millions of dollars’ worth of losses, this begs the question of why consumers would continue to invest so heavily in the sector. Cross-chain bridges, which is the type that was exploited in Binance’s case, usually attract significant amounts of tokens, translating into real value, which immediately invites hackers and other bad operators to look in and try and syphon off some of the funds.
Cross-Chain Bridge Vulnerabilities Targeted by Criminals
In many cases, they have been successful. This year alone, over $1 billion of funds lost to such attacks was reported. Binance’s $570 million was of course the biggest so far, but there have been others as well. Half of all DeFi hacks are because of these cross-chain bridges, amounting to $2.5 billion in the past two years. Some have criticized cross-chain bridges as being developed too quickly and without the necessary safety precautions.
Even Ethereum and Bitcoin, the biggest blockchains out there, were reported to have had historic weaknesses but managed to dodge a bullet as it were. Binance didn’t, but the company seems to be doing well despite the latest attack. In fact, Binance is even helping train police officers and departments around the globe on how to stop digital crime.