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(Sharecast News) - Crypto platform Binance has announced it has set aside over $6bn of company funds to cover what is thought to be the biggest hack in history, which it blamed on a "compromised DevOps engineer's laptop".
The world's largest crypto exchange said it has begun recovering affected assets and is working with law enforcement, issuers, blockchain intelligence firms and industry partners to "trace, freeze and recover additional funds".
In a post on X, Binance said: "Binance's initial investigation suggests that the security incident may involve a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorised withdrawal transactions."
Investigators have attributed the attack to North Korean hackers, given the similarities to other large crypto thefts blamed on the nation, although Pyongyang has not acknowledged any involvement.
Binance said it has reserved $6.34bn of its own funds to cover the incident, $5bn of which are already held in the exact token assets that were impacted. Some $3bn of affected assets have been frozen so far, and the company will use its resources to cover any shortfall.
However, as an immediate precaution, Binance has temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals while security checks are completed, and revoked the affected address authorisation.
"We will weather this storm. Thank you for the support," the company said.
David Bowman, partner at law firm DMH Stallard and a specialist in digital asset litigation, said the theft showcases the "inherent insecurities of digital asset ownership".
"Just as in other forms of cyber-crime, the main weakness is not the strength of the underlying cryptographic technology, but the human factor," he said. "The compromising of a single senior developer's laptop at the cryptocurrency exchange has allowed hackers to orchestrate one of the greatest thefts of all time with little more than a computer and an internet connection."
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