Cybercriminals managed to steal over $82 million worth of cryptocurrency just hours before the new year began by exploiting Orbit Bridge, a bridging service of the cross-chain protocol Orbit Chain. The team behind Orbit Chain confirmed the incident and stated that they are working with web3 auditing company Theori to determine the root cause of the issue. They also mentioned that they are actively collaborating with international law enforcement agencies.
Cybercriminals Get Busy On New Year’s Day
The attackers breached the protocol on December 31, 2023, at 08:52:47 PM +UTC, according to official confirmation. The developers are currently cooperating with foreign law enforcement agencies to identify the primary cause of the incident. Preliminary investigations conducted by PeckShield Inc., a blockchain security company, revealed losses of $81.5 million in stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies across five different transactions.
Various cryptocurrency influencers and blockchain security specialists, such as @officer_cia on Twitter, have verified the attack through their tweets. SlowMist, another blockchain security company, has conducted an initial external investigation and found evidence of a potential security breach in the Orbit Chain bridge or a compromised centralized server. They are conducting a more thorough investigation to gather more information about the hack.
An analysis conducted by Arkham Intelligence, a blockchain analysis tool, has reported that five distinct transactions using cryptocurrencies took $81.68 million out of the system.
Introduction of Orbit Chain
In 2018, South Korea introduced Orbit Chain, which enables cross-chain transactions between decentralized protocols. The protocol facilitates asset transfers between EVM-compatible networks and the modular layer-1 blockchain Klaytn, which has strong ties to Orbit Chain. Klaytn is committed to providing prompt updates and is in regular communication with Ozys to assess the situation. Orbit is believed to be Klaytn’s largest bridge supplier.
The Klaytn Foundation confirmed that it has not been affected by the Orbit Bridge hack and is reaching out to Ozys to evaluate the situation further.
After significant outflows from the Orbit Chain Bridge protocol, a user named Kgjr discovered a possible vulnerability in the protocol used by cybercriminals. Several other blockchain analysts shared the same findings on Twitter.
Big Losses In 2023
This incident adds to the overall amount of money lost to cybercriminals in 2023, which reached over $2.4 billion through 462 hacks, according to SlowMist.
The Orbit team assured protocol users that they were actively seeking law enforcement support and conducting a root cause investigation. They also disclosed a user compensation plan, requiring users to go through a verification process to determine their eligibility for a refund.
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