- Blockchain Bandit transfers $172M in Ether into a single wallet after two years of inactivity.
- Hacker group uses “Ethercombing” to crack 732 private keys, compromising 49,060 transactions.
- 2024 crypto thefts surge to $2.3B, with $1.9B from access control breaches and scams.
The notorious hacker group Blockchain Bandit has come back to the cryptocurrency community with a new attack plan. At this address, on December 30, 2024, the group moved 51,000 Ether (ETH), which is approximately $172.2 million, into a single wallet. This is the first major activity of the group for nearly two years and has caused a stir in the cryptocurrency community.
Source: Pix
Between 8:54 PM and 9:18 PM UTC, the hacker group transferred $10,366,642 from ten inactive wallet addresses into a multi-signature wallet with the address of “0xC45…1D542.” Each so-called transfer contained 5,000 ETH, and the hacker had also transferred 470 Bitcoin (BTC) in combination with Ethereum on January 21, 2023.
Rising Threat of Blockchain Bandit
The Blockchain Bandit is said to have used a technique known as Ethercombing. This one takes advantage of small private keys by trying to guess them to attack the bad coding and pseudo random number generators. Adrian Bednarek, a crypto security researcher, said the hacker managed to crack 732 private keys, which led to 49,060 malicious activities.
The group appeared for the first time in 2016, but it was two years later that the Blockchain Bandit became a real problem. In that year alone the hacker group was able to use automated tools to steal more than 45,000 ETH. This made them one of the most dangerous cybercriminals in the cryptocurrency industry as they actively contributed to the increase of fear regarding the safety of blockchain networks.
Crypto Security Remains Vulnerable
The following heist is a clear illustration of why the blockchain is still unsafe despite the progress made in the last few months. Still, such problems remain actual threats to the systems: the security measures have been developed, but hackers do not cease attacking through these flaws. Cyvers, on-chain security firm stated that cryptocurrency thefts in 2024 stood at $2.3 billion as compared to 40% rise from the previous year. More than half of these losses, or $1.9 billion, was attributable to access control in breaches at centralized exchanges and custodial services, including from scams such as ‘pig butchering.’
The Blockchain Bandit’s return proves that the crypto industry has not become any safer since the last time the hacker struck. Nonetheless, these thefts show that even though blockchain technology is secure and transparent, the hackers are not relenting in their search for ways to break into any system. This comes in the wake of increased incidence of cybercrime which underlines the fact that protecting digital assets still presents a big challenge to the cryptocurrency industry.
Due to a sharp rise in crypto thefts in the year 2024, the industry needs to pay more attention to the security aspect. Till the mentioned issues are solved the hackers will not keep on exploiting the flaws of the system. The war for the safest digital assets is still in full swing.
