[2018-03-08] Binance CEO: All Irregular Trades Reversed, Hackers Lost Coins

[cybersofts]

Binance CEO: All Irregular Trades Reversed, Hackers Lost Coins




Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has claimed all fraudulent trades that occurred on Wednesday have been reversed.

Suspicions were high earlier this week regarding strange occurrences on the Binance exchange. Multiple users took to Reddit to express concern at highly unusual unauthorized trades happening on their accounts. Clarification has come today with an official release from the exchange and tweets from the company’s CEO.

On March 7th between 14:58 and 14:59 “abnormal trading activity” was detected on one of the Hugely popular Binance exchange’s marketplaces. The automatic risk management system was triggered, and all withdrawals were immediately halted.

The activity was discovered to have been an attempted hack. The attackers had managed to phish multiple Binance account details using a similar URL. Waiting for the right moment, the hackers commanded the hacked accounts to buy ViaCoin at extremely high prices, skyrocketing the price by some several hundred percent. Immediately after the trades had been completed, the hackers tried to withdraw the large pool of Bitcoin they had gathered but were unable to due to the fast-acting alarm system.

Chanpeng Zhou, CEO of the platform, took to Twitter to demonstrate the phishing URL from a users history:

"A user’s history. Can you see the two dots under the domain name? Phishing website that redirects to the real website after login. Additionally, after you log in once, it doesn't let you access the phishing site again - will auto-redirect you to Binance (even after logging out)"

 - @cz_binance | https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/971483376753393664


All irregular trades were reversed, meaning that no users of the platform lost any form of funds. What’s evening more interesting however is that the failed attempt actually caused the hackers to lose funds. The attempt to maximize profits by forcing the phished accounts to buy ViaCoin from the attackers at hugely marked up prices backfired, as Binance was able to confiscate the hackers supply of the altcoin. According to Zhao, the confiscated funds will be donated to Binance Charity.

"Binance has reversed all irregular trades. All deposit, trading and withdrawal are resumed. will write a more detailed account of what happened shortly. Interestingly, the hackers lost coins during this attempt. We will donate this to Binance Charity."

 - @cz_binance | https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/971520303812698112

While the exchange is running normally today, traders have been warned to improve their security to avoid phishing attempts. This can be achieved by bookmarking the official Binance URL and never clicking a link to the trading platform. The official statement from the company reminds readers that “protecting our traders is and has always been our highest priority”, and the fast-acting alarm system did just that.

Whilst Binance managed to prevent the loss of its user’s funds, other platforms haven’t been so lucky. Earlier this year CoinCheck lost $530m of traders cryptocurrency, and the BitGrail exchange lost $170m of Nano. Using centralized exchanges can be highly risky, and this week’s events come as a reminder to be extra vigilant and maximize online security.


Source: https://www.ccn.com/binance-reverses-hacker-trades/

[1714820254]

1714820254

[1714820254]

1714820254

[1714820254]

1714820254

[1714820254]

1714820254

[1714820254]

1714820254

[1714820254]

1714820254

[richardsNY]

I like how Binance's system managed to prevent the hackers from withdrawing coins that quickly. I wonder why on earth there are still noobs who recklessly click un URL's, and then even blatantly proceed with entering their details. I don't even bookmark URL's, because that leads to you being far too comfortable at a later point, and just take for granted that you're visiting the right site. I type everything manually, check the URL to see if there aren't any typos or whatever, and then press enter. And even then, before logging in, I again check if everything looks legit. Call me paranoid, but it helped me throughout the years to avoid any potential dangers, and I will continue following this path.

[jhenfelipe]

I like how Binance's system managed to prevent the hackers from withdrawing coins that quickly. I wonder why on earth there are still noobs who recklessly click un URL's, and then even blatantly proceed with entering their details. I don't even bookmark URL's, because that leads to you being far too comfortable at a later point, and just take for granted that you're visiting the right site. I type everything manually, check the URL to see if there aren't any typos or whatever, and then press enter. And even then, before logging in, I again check if everything looks legit. Call me paranoid, but it helped me throughout the years to avoid any potential dangers, and I will continue following this path.

I'm doing the same, well, that's the safest way I could think of. I even check the URL multiple times letter by letter just to be sure. Exerting an extra effort for me is nothing, if in return my online accounts/funds will be secured.

Tbh I'm impressed with Binance's automatic risk management system, proven that they prioritize security. If only other platforms could do the same ~
On the other hand, security practices should start with the users. Lazy and careless people will always be the target of hackers, start being extra vigilant and don't wait to become a victim then blame the platform after. It's our responsibility in the first place.

[aeternus]

I like how Binance's system managed to prevent the hackers from withdrawing coins that quickly. I wonder why on earth there are still noobs who recklessly click un URL's, and then even blatantly proceed with entering their details. I don't even bookmark URL's, because that leads to you being far too comfortable at a later point, and just take for granted that you're visiting the right site. I type everything manually, check the URL to see if there aren't any typos or whatever, and then press enter. And even then, before logging in, I again check if everything looks legit. Call me paranoid, but it helped me throughout the years to avoid any potential dangers, and I will continue following this path.

You are not paranoid, you are doing what everyone else should be doing when we are talking about such huge sums of money, I know because I do the same iand I do not have any kind of big holdings of bitcoin or altcoins, but I do not want to lose my small holdings to hackers but it seems those people that keep clicking in anything they see do not really care about their coins.

[Blackshadow007]

I like how Binance's system managed to prevent the hackers from withdrawing coins that quickly. I wonder why on earth there are still noobs who recklessly click un URL's, and then even blatantly proceed with entering their details. I don't even bookmark URL's, because that leads to you being far too comfortable at a later point, and just take for granted that you're visiting the right site. I type everything manually, check the URL to see if there aren't any typos or whatever, and then press enter. And even then, before logging in, I again check if everything looks legit. Call me paranoid, but it helped me throughout the years to avoid any potential dangers, and I will continue following this path.

you are not paranoid in deed that's security awareness , i do bookmark but only after checking the correct address .

[entrepmind23]

I like how binance handled the problem. They have address the problem immediately which makes them more superior in terms of handling this kind of problems compared to other exchanges which may take a few days or even weeks. This would make the traders trust the exchange more because of what happened. Maybe binance was able to confiscate the hackers funds but it is said that the hackers have foreseen it and their original plan is to crash the prices not only in binance but in all exchanges because they put different buy orders in several exchanges cause they know that once binance's problem would spread, there would be FUD and the prices still continue to go down as of this writing even though the problem is already solved.

[LuanX3]

It's just really scary to know that these kinds of things still happens to top exchanges. They hold millions and even billions worth of cryptocurrencies and they could still be susceptible to hackers that could alter the trading of the platform. Which means there are still people that lost or gained because of the hack, not because they were hackers, but they were like collateral damage.

[RamonBTC]

Binance proven to us that as one of top exchanges in terms of dealing with this kind of crisis, they manage to get out of issue by immediately find the problem and solve it without panicking. They have a great team behind  and a capable one and that’s make them outstanding than any other exchanges who have reputation been damage because of their lack of accountability.

[jjacob]

It is fortuitous that the hackers were not successful in their attempts to get their funds out quickly. I wonder how Binance's move of seizing the hacker's funds would stand scrutiny. After all, there is a contract in place between Binance and their users - I doubt if it allows Binance to seize all your funds if its terms and conditions are not followed.
They have reversed all fraudulent transactions in this case. Would they have done the same if it involved the exchange losing money?