Representatives of the Binance exchange have set a lavish reward for information about hackers who attempted a cryptocurrency scam last week using stolen API keys of individual users of the exchange. Representatives of the Binance exchange have set a lavish reward for information about hackers who last week attempted to carry out a cryptocurrency phishing scam using stolen API keys of individual users of the exchange. Recall. Last Wednesday, through previously launched phishing attacks, fraudsters managed to gain access to a certain number of API keys of individual users, used, among others, to conduct automated trading on the exchange, often by so-called trading bots. API keys give full access to trading options, however they do not give the possibility to withdraw funds from the given exchange account. Therefore, in this case the method of "cryptocurrency laundering" was used - for this purpose a little known but available on the exchange Binance, coin Viacoin was used, which at an inflated rate was sold to the accounts seized for bitcoins. These in turn, from their own accounts, in small amounts (in order not to raise suspicion of the exchange) the scammers managed to pay out to their wallets. As assured by the administrators of Binance the threat was detected on time and all irregular transactions were withdrawn. As a precautionary measure the exchange decided to block withdrawals of currency and cryptocurrency funds from users' accounts for some time. Today, in an official statement, the administration of the exchange announces that it has set a reward of $250,000 for any information that will contribute to the arrest and conviction of the hackers. The sum would be paid in the exchange's native coin, Binance Coin (BNB). Additionally, Binance says it has set aside a separate pool of cryptocurrency funds equivalent to $10 million as a "reserve for future rewards against illegal hacking activity" for the exchange. The exchange is also inviting "other exchanges and cryptocurrency businesses to join" this initiative. Let's not hide the fact that the chances of identifying and convicting individual perpetrators of last week's attempted attack on selected Binance accounts are slim in this case and the reward itself is rather meant as a deterrent and prevention of potential future attempts of similar type of hacks. With a daily trading volume regularly exceeding $2 billion and a user base of over 6 million, Binance is currently the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. Its owner, Changpeng Zhao, was recently ranked by Forbes magazine as the third richest person in the world who made their fortune on cryptocurrencies. Zhao's wealth is currently estimated at between 1.1 and 2 billion. USD. Tags Biance hacker award hacking
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