Reports have claimed hackers have stolen a whopping $22 million from crypto wallets via a fake update notification sent to Electrum wallet users.It
In the full report, the crypto hackers were said to have expertly carried out their activities on the wallets without a trail, stealing $22 million in the process. The news outlet that broke the news, ZDNet, claimed that this act of stealing crypto via fake update notification has been going on for the last two years.
Furthermore, the report claimed that wallet users suspected the acts around December 2018, which they reported to the outfit, but the hackers continued to use this same method to steal Bitcoins.
September hack brought the previous hacks to the limelight
ZDNet claimed that the last attack that brought the hacker’s act to the limelight was noticed in the latter parts of September. A statement on different blogs claimed that the hackers found a way to get into the Electrum database and sent out notifications of updates to their customers at different intervals.
After the update, the users noticed that their coins were missing and had been moved to wallets that allegedly belonged to the hackers. The hackers seemed to have carefully studied the Electrum app and used the loopholes to run their hack. Their knowledge of the app made it very easy for them to operate for a long time without being detected until now.
Here is a sneak peek of how they pulled off the operation; all Electrum wallets are designed to connect automatically to the Bitcoin network through the ElectrumX, which is a network of Electrum servers that the wallets use to process user transactions and store their coins.
Since Electrum runs an open-source network, it is easy for a versatile hacker to create a fake ElectrumX getaway server. After setting up the malicious servers, users connected to it via the update, which presented an easy way to carry out their plans.
Hacker’s wallet contains 1980 Bitcoins worth $22 million
The move above gave the hackers the authority to instruct their server to display pop up notifications on phones of Electrum wallet users with instructions on how to go about the update.
The URL contained on the updated website was not the same as the official URL on the site but shared a stark resemblance. With users installing this app, it meant that they ended up installing a version that can be easily accessible to the hackers.
After installation, the hackers just needed the OTP from the apps to gain access to the wallet and steal the funds. Presently, the wallet belonging to the hackers has nothing less than 1980 Bitcoins, and considering the current Bitcoin price, it is valued at $22 million.
However, the highest Bitcoin transaction record on the wallet is 1,400 Bitcoins and is synonymous with an incident on Electrum where a user said he lost the Bitcoins mentioned above to hackers. Meanwhile, Electrum has swung into action by blacklisting servers that add malicious networks to their server.
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