A Cryptocurrency platform known as PolyNetwork was hacked a week ago by an anonymous username “Mr White Hat”. The hacker has managed a crypto heist worth $600 million in digital coins. PolyNetwork is decentralized finance or “Defi” project, which lets its users swap tokens from one digital ledger to another one. And also this is considered being one of the largest crypto heist to date.
The hacker has claimed that this was an attack on the platform as an act of “hacking for good”. And also the hacker has mentioned that this was a way of finding loopholes in a company’s computer systems to alert them to fix it, by terming it as “Ethical Hacking”. As promised, the hacker has returned half of the stolen currency so far, which is an unusual step. But now they are stalling the company by refusing to pay the other half.
The hacker is communicating with the team of PolyNetwork using transaction data filed within the Blockchain. The identity of the hacker is not known yet or if it is a person or group.
As an act of gratitude, the company has offered a job to Mr White Hat as a chief security officer on Tuesday. Also, the company made a statement “To extend our thanks and encourage Mr White Hat to continue contributing to security advancement in the blockchain world together with PolyNetwork, we cordially invite Mr White Hat to be the Chief Security Advisor of PolyNetwork,”. The company has also mentioned that they will not hold the hacker legally responsible, as they are confident on the hacker to return full control of the company’s assets.
After paying back half of the hacked amount, the hacker has deposited the rest amount into a joint account by protecting the account with two security codes that are required to unlock. One of these two codes is being given to the company’s team while keeping the other one. In the meantime, the company has been pleading with the hacker to give other security codes so the funds of its users can be accessed. Despite the job offer and another offer to keep $500,000, the hacker is reluctant to provide the other security code.
“There have been plenty of Defi hacks, but there have been no ongoing conversations between the hacker and the project,” said Tom Robinson, co-founder of blockchain forensics firm Elliptic Enterprises Ltd. He also added “It seems like the hacker wants to keep some control over the funds. It just feels to me like the hacker has a bit of an ego. He wants to keep some attention.”
Few researchers from crypto currency research firm Chainalysis Inc. have speculated that PolyNetwork’s approach towards the hacker is a sensible decision as it will help in regaining all their lost funds by applauding the hacker with titles or paying money.
Would you ever try to hack any of the cryptos just to get attention or a position? Let us know your views.
