Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, recently became the target of North Korean hackers, who stole an estimated $6.3 billion within 20 minutes.
According to Axios, North Korean hackers have carried out the world’s biggest cryptocurrency heist, building on more than a decade of financial theft and disruptive cyberattacks. Their cryptocurrency thefts have now grown into an industrial-scale operation.
The suspected hackers behind the massive $6.3 billion Binance theft seemingly combined familiar hacking tactics with extraordinary speed and automation, raising concerns regarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and how it could supercharge their already sophisticated methods.
Citing researchers at TRM Labs, the report added that the hackers started preparing for this attack roughly 36 hours before it began. They also laundered the stolen funds and wiped out evidence of their operations at an unprecedented speed, indicating they used automation throughout the heist.
Eric Jardine, head of research at Chainalysis, said, "There were transactions happening with a frequency and a scale that just meant there could not have been someone involved in the approval of these," and added, "It had to have been done by a computer."