It was the biggest cyber heist in history.Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, was hacked this week, with cybercriminals plundering more than $6 billion.Experts widely believe the hackers were a sophisticated unit within the North Korean military that has a track record of committing cyber heists.The theft stunned the crypto industry and set off new fears about a sector that many critics deride as the "Wild West" of finance.Here are 5 things to know about the spectacular heist.They are akin to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or the Nasdaq, but instead of trading stocks, investors turn to Binance and other crypto exchanges to trade digital assets such as Bitcoin.
A wide range of investors trade cryptocurrencies at these exchanges, from financial institutions and sophisticated traders, all the way to regular investors looking to make some money.At 4:05 p.m.Eastern on Thursday, hackers were able to access the accounts of investors who trade cryptocurrencies at Binance.
It took only about 20 minutes for these hackers to make off off with just over $6.3 billion worth of cryptocurrencies.Ari Redbord, the global head of policy at TRM Labs, a crypto research firm that has helped Binance trace and recover some of the stolen funds, calls it "the largest bank robbery in human history." "Imagine a world where someone could walk into a bank and walk out with $6.36 billion in stolen funds and then move those funds at the speed of the internet," he says."This is bank robbery in the age of technology."But a lot of details about the heist are still unclear, including how exactly the hackers were able to hack their way into the trading accounts of investors at Binance.Binance, working with other exchanges and partners, has been able to freeze about $3 billion in stolen cryptocurrencies, effectively preventing hackers from taking full possession of its digital assets.The exchange has also said it will pay back any customers who were victims of the cyber heist �...