Binance cryptocurrency exchange was hacked and over 7,000 Bitcoins were stolen

Binance, one of the world’s five largest cryptocurrency exchanges, announced a security breach on the website on May 7. The hackers used phishing, computer viruses, and other attacks to obtain API keys and 2FA codes to access user accounts and steal more than 7,000 bitcoins, worth nearly $41 million.

The hacker made a huge transaction of 7074 bitcoins in BTC hot wallet (a cryptocurrency wallet that’s connected to the Internet). After the incident, the Binance administrator immediately frozen the deposit and withdrawal function and placed the website in maintenance mode to investigate the incident. Binance said that hackers took the opportunity to carefully plan the action through multiple independent accounts.

In March 2018, Binance also had a cybersecurity phishing incident that affected a large number of Binance users. At the time, Binance offered a reward of $250,000 to collect information on the arrests of phishing participants. This time, the company plans to conduct a security audit in the coming week to clear the accounts that hackers still hold. Binance also announced that it will bear the loss, so users will not lose Bitcoin due to hacking.

Originally, from July 14, 2018, the company allocated 10% of the transaction fees charged to the Security Asset Users (SAFU) fund to protect user funds in emergencies. Previously, the money was stored in a cold wallet. The platform is said to plan to use this Secure Asset User (SAFU) fund to compensate for user losses.