- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Italy targets climate activists in 'anti-Gandhi' demo clampdown
- US trade chief defends tariff hikes when paired with investment
- EU court blocks French ban on vegetable 'steak' labelling
- Meta AI turns pictures into videos with sound
- US dockworkers return to ports after three-day strike
- DR Congo to begin mpox vaccination campaign Saturday in east
- Meta must limit data use for targeted ads: EU court
- Oil extends gains, jobs report lifts Wall Street
- US hiring soars past expectations in sign of resilient market
- As EU targets Chinese cars, European rivals sputter
- Top EU court finds against FIFA in key transfer market ruling
- Oil extends gains, Hong Kong stocks resume rally
- 'A man provides': Ukrainian miners send families away as Russia advances
- EU states greenlight extra tariffs on EVs from China
- Hong Kong stocks resume rally, oil dips after Middle East-fuelled surge
- Crude stable after Israel-Iran surge, Hong Kong stocks resume gains
- Hera spacecraft to probe asteroid deflected by defence test
- US dockworkers to head back to work after tentative deal
- After Helene's destruction, North Carolina starts to rebuild
- Dockers end three-day strike at Montreal port
- What next for OpenAI after $157 billion bonanza?
- Israel-Hamas war causes 86-percent dive in Gaza GDP: IMF
- Milan's Morata moves house after Inter-fan town mayor 'violates' privacy
- 'Devastating' storm hits Augusta National but Masters will go on
- Relief in Brazil, Asia over delay to EU deforestation rules
- Oil prices jump, stocks fall on Middle East tensions
- Biden says 'discussing' possible Israeli strikes on Iran oil facilities
- Oil prices rise, stocks fall on Middle East tensions
- Oil rallies, stocks mostly retreat on Middle East tensions
- Phasing out teen smoking could save 1.2 mn lives: study
- 'Welcome relief': Asia producers hail EU deforestation law delay
- Japan PM slated to announce plans for 'happiness index'
- Turkish inflation falls less than expected in September at 49.4%
- Easing inflation lifts profit at UK supermarket Tesco
- Skiing calls on UN climate science to combat melting future
- China wine industry looks to breed climate resilience
- Tokyo rallies on weak yen, Hong Kong drops after surge
- Dutch airline KLM unveils 'firm' cost-cutting measures
- Carpe diem: the Costa Rican women turning fish into fashion
- Senegal looks to aquaculture as fish stocks dwindle
- Will AI one day win a Nobel Prize?
- Climate change, economics muddy West's drive to curb Chinese EVs
- Argentina's Milei vetoes university budget after huge protests
- TotalEnergies plans to grow oil and gas production until 2030
- 2024 Nobels offer glimmer of hope as global crises mount
- Tokyo rallies on weak yen, Hong Kong reverses after surge
- Tunisia readies for vote as incumbent Saied eyes victory
Crypto scammers make off with $100 mn from Binance
Scammers stole cryptocurrency worth roughly $100 million from Binance, the world's biggest exchange for cryptoassets, the firm said on Friday.
The total stolen was $580 million, but company chief Changpeng Zhao said roughly 80 percent had been frozen immediately, and the damage had been limited to less than $100 million.
He tweeted that "an exploit" in the system led to extra production of the exchange's dedicated currency, BNB, but insisted the issue had been "contained" and told his seven million followers: "Your funds are safe."
It is among the biggest thefts in cryptocurrency history and comes in a year where scammers preying on the sector have got away with billions of dollars.
In the most damaging incident, the Axie Infinity blockchain game was hacked for more than $500 million in late March.
Both scams exploited weaknesses in "cross-chain bridges" -- the means used by investors to move assets from one blockchain to another.
Blockchains are digital ledgers that store details of transactions -- the biggest is bitcoin but there are thousands of others.
Binance, which dominates the sector and boasted of handling transactions worth $32 trillion last year, said in a statement that "a total of 2 million BNB was withdrawn", which valued the heist at $580 million.
Zhao later clarified in an interview with MSNBC that most of those coins had been frozen.
- 'Complete chaos' -
Prominent crypto figures had taken to social media late on Thursday talking of a $600 million theft hours before the firm sent its first statement.
"Somebody on BNB just got hacked for (roughly) 2 million BNB," wrote a developer who uses the name foobar on Twitter.
"The attacker is spewing funds across liquidity pools and utilising every bridge they can to get to safer chains. Complete chaos on the chain."
Experts have been warning of security lapses on cross-chain bridges all year.
Chainalysis, a crypto analysis firm, said in August that bridge exploits had accounted for around $2 billion in thefts this year already.
Elliptic, another analysis firm, said in a report this week that bridges "tend to accumulate large amounts of locked assets on numerous blockchains, many of which may not have advanced security or auditing cultures due to their relative obscurity".
"This has made bridges an attractive target for cybercriminals in the past," it added.
Governments around the world are concerned that cryptocurrencies are being used to fund terrorism, circumvent sanctions and prop up repressive regimes.
Experts believe groups linked to North Korea have been behind some of the most high-profile heists, including the Axie Infinity breach.
J.Bondarev--CPN