A compromised DevOps laptop caused the $6.3B Binance breach

Publisher excerpt From CSO Online

Cryptocurrency Exchange Binance blamed a compromised DevOps laptop for the loss of $6.3 billion in cryptocurrency last week, adding that it will now cover any losses faced by its customers. “Binance will cover all losses from the Secure Assets Fund for Users (SAFU) and the company’s funds,” the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange said in an update on Friday, adding that user funds are safe and that it had found no evidence of wallet private-key leakage during its investigation of the incident. It had frozen approximately $3 billion in assets on-chain, temporarily suspending withdrawals while security checks were completed, and revoking the affected address authorization. Withdrawals are now being restored in phases, initially reopening services across 15 networks, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. Binance says it has replenished approximately 95% of the affected assets using company funds, while the remaining 5%, comprising less-liquid tokens, could take longer to source. The exchange said its preliminary investigation pointed to a compromised employee device that enabled access to a service container involved in withdrawals. “This attack, reportedly on a development engineer, highlights that security is a critical element of every operational stage and personnel level,” said Tim Rawlins, senior advisor and director of security at NCC Group. “When security failures in trusted identities and administrative access can be targeted, attackers can exploit more…

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