$6.3 Billion Heist at Binance: Details of the Breach

Binance confirmed the theft of $6.3 billion — the largest heist in cryptocurrency history. The attackers used a multi-month social engineering campaign against exchange employees.

Social Engineering and Phishing

North Korean hackers spent months grooming an engineer via LinkedIn. The scenario involved a fake recruiter, an interview with an HR manager, and a test assignment from the supposed CEO of a non-existent company. The engineer downloaded and ran a malicious file.

Meanwhile, another employee installed Homebrew via an ad link instead of the official source. This allowed attackers to access compromised devices.

Use of Binance's Internal Tools

From the compromised laptops, the attackers used Binance's own internal AI tool. They expanded their access by infiltrating other corporate accounts.

The attackers discovered a container deployment token belonging to one DevOps engineer. This key became the final point of access for stealing funds.

Classic Phishing Without AI Magic

The incident is not related to new technologies or AI vulnerabilities. It is classic phishing, a method older than the Binance exchange itself.