[2018-02-11] Binance Vs. McAfee: Hack Rumors Controversy

[cybersofts]

Binance Vs. McAfee: Hack Rumors Controversy




For more than 24 hours, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, was down due to a server issue on Feb. 7. On Feb. 9, Binance resumed trading after successfully rebooting its server.


Binance hack rumors refuted

John McAfee, a security expert and a well-known public figure in the cryptocurrency space, continued to fuel controversy around Binance and rumors of hacking attacks, showing screenshots that circulated on various social media platforms.

“I received dozens similar from a variety of sources. I'm not saying there was a hack. I'm merely asking for clarification. If a hack did happen and we are not immediately pursuing it, then the chances of recovery go to zero within 24 hours,” McAfee stated.
 
In response to McAfee’s statement, which referenced a photoshopped image of the Binance website, the company’s CEO Changpeng Zhao stated:

Immediately after McAfee released several statements on the issue, the Binance team along with its CEO Changpeng Zhao refuted the rumors, stating that Binance was not hacked. Binance went as far as to transfer funds from its cold wallet to hot wallet to show that the exchange was not hacked.

The Binance team also encouraged McAfee not to spread false information and provided evidence that funds on the exchange are safe by publicly showing the cryptocurrency wallet addresses of the exchange.

Zhao added that the exchange did not experience a hack, but an issue with its server and the team focused on recovering its data to enable trading.


Difference between hack and minor server issues

Recently, many cryptocurrency exchanges and trading platforms were hacked. Coincheck experienced a $530 mln hacking attack as reported by Cointelegraph and yesterday, the largest Nano (RaiBlocks) exchange BitGrail experienced a security breach.

The difference between a hacking attack and a minor server issue is that with security breaches, anyone can verify the movement of absurdly large amounts of cryptocurrencies from the cryptocurrency exchange’s wallets to external wallets, as seen in the case of Coincheck.

Hours before the Coincheck team admitted to a hacking attack, many members of the cryptocurrency community released evidence that hundreds of millions of dollars worth of NEM were moved from the wallet of Coincheck to external wallets.

Thus, if there is no evidence that large sums of funds in cryptocurrencies are transferred from the wallets of a cryptocurrency exchange to external wallets, it is irresponsible to suggest the possibility of a hacking attack.

On Feb. 11, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao released a personal statement on the recent Binance server issue and the actions of McAfee.

    “The real helper was Mr. Mcafee, posting an obviously fake image about us being hacked. Everyone pitched in to help defend us. He united the community for us, and rallied such support, during a time when we needed it the most. Sometimes, things that look negative are actually positive.”

Cryptocurrency exchanges have similar daily trading volumes as stock markets in regions like South Korea. Trading platforms process billions of dollars on a daily basis. As such, upon the occurrence of a hacking attack or a security breach, cryptocurrency exchanges often contact the authorities and cooperate with law enforcement to investigate the attack, as Coincheck did last month. Also, given the size of most major cryptocurrency exchanges, it is irresponsible to suggest the possibility of hacking attacks or security breaches without hard evidence.


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/binance-vs-mcafee-hack-rumors-refuted-cryptocurrency-trading-resumed

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[jjacob]

Binance has grown from a fledgling exchange to one of the biggest players in the cryptoworld, in a short span of less than a year. It has of course benefited from the ban on exchanges in mainland China, which has resulted in all customers migrating to offshore exchanges. It may not be Mt Gox, but a hack at Binance would impact the Bitcoin ecosystem significantly.

[BitHodler]

McAfee has to stop bitching around like a money hungry troll. It's well known that he isn't shy of shaking up the market, or just to try and trap in noobs when it comes to buying shitcoins that have zero actual potential.

The more he continues with this low level behavior, which doesn't suit him as a billionaire at all, the more everyone is going to ignore him. I wonder if he even understands how much of an idiot he makes out of himself in the media.

Once an exchange happens to experience difficulties causing them to remain offline for hours, you'll see the hack rumors pop up like there is no tomorrow. It's understandable somewhat, but super annoying.

Good thing is that the market didn't care a single bit about Binance performing maintenance.

[richardsNY]

It may not be Mt Gox, but a hack at Binance would impact the Bitcoin ecosystem significantly.

At current stage all the major exchanges are potentially capable of turning this market into a temporary war zone. The main point of importance is that an exchange, regardless of its size, should never hold more than 10% of its total digital asset reserves in hot wallets. As long as exchanges stick to that main base rule/policy, a potential hack will never be able to strike hard. Coincheck, that swallowed a $500 million loss due to a hack (let's assume that for now), had all these funds sitting in a hot wallet, which is mind boggling and very shady. If they have $500 million worth of an altcoin sitting in a hot wallet, imagine how much they have had sitting in hot wallets of all their crypto assets....

[European Central Bank]

this was a new low.

john mcafee's days as someone worth paying attention to are numbered. he is a legitimate crazy person and self serving scumbag. i'm amazed he didn't gravitate towards crypto before. it's a marriage made in hell.

why on earth did everyone choose to make this madman any type of authority? he didn't even know that bitcoin has had two halvings. it's only a matter of time before he launches his own monster ico and then he'll really piss all over his rep when it inevitably amounts to nothing.

[akamit]

I don't understand why Mr. McAfee always speaks out about something which doesn't have any solid base.
He is one of the biggest names in the world and he should not say anything which may lead to harm his own reputation.

There is no doubt that Binance is one of the largest altcoin exchange currently, and if rumors spread from a big name then it may get peoples attention.
But it seems this time cryptospace didn't listen to the rumor and market is much stable, which is also good sign imo.