Harmony Blockchain Bridge Loses $100 Million In Crypto Hack

U.S.ย based firm Harmony, theย cryptoย start-up behind Horizonย Blockchainย Bridge, on Friday announced that $100 million worth of digital tokens were stolen from one of its key products.

For the unversed, Horizonย Blockchainย Bridge allows users to transfer theirย cryptoย assets including tokens, stablecoins, and NFTs, between Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and the Harmony blockchain.

The company said that on June 23, 2022, they became aware of a malicious attack being successfully carried out on its proprietary Horizon Ethereum Bridge, which compromised the bridge with 11 transactions that extracted tokens stored in the bridge. The estimated value of the stolen crypto at the time of the attack was approximately $100 million.

Harmony added that it had stopped the Horizon bridge to prevent further transactions. Incidentally, Harmonyโ€™s bridge for Bitcoin was unaffected by the attack; its funds and assets stored on decentralized vaults are safe at this time.

Following the attack, the company immediately notified multiple cyber security partners, exchange partners, and the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and requested to assist with an investigation in identifying the culprit and methods to retrieve stolen assets. Only after these contacts were established, Harmony announced the hack via Twitter and its blog post.

 

The Harmony team even attempted communication with the hacker at its address:ย 0x0d043128146654c7683fbf30ac98d7b2285ded00 with an embedded message in aย transaction at approximately 5:30 PM PST and is awaiting a response.

โ€œHarmony believes that focusing on decentralized bridges is an essential step forward for Web3. This incident is a humbling and unfortunate reminder of how our work is paramount to the future of this space, and how much of our work remains ahead of us,โ€ the company said in a statement.

โ€œOngoing investigations present a challenge of what information is allowed to be shared with the public, but we will continue to provide updates with the latest information as soon as we are able to share,โ€ it added.

โ€œWe are working around the clock to ensure both the investigation and recovery of stolen funds are concluded in the most time efficient manner possible.โ€

On Friday, the Harmony team said that they handed their findings to its U.S. colleagues who have resumed the investigation alongside its cyber security partners. Its investigation team comprises engineers located around the world including the U.S., Greece, India, and Cambodia.

This breach is the third major bridge hack this year after Wormhole bridge suffered a $325 million hack in February and Ronin Network lost more than $600 million in March due to a blockchain bridge attack. More than $1 billion has been stolen from cryptocurrency bridges in the year 2022 alone.

Kavita Iyer
Kavita Iyerhttps://www.techworm.net
An individual, optimist, homemaker, foodie, a die hard cricket fan and most importantly one who believes in Being Human!!!

Subscribe to our newsletter

To be updated with all the latest news

Read More

Suggested Post