Breaking News: Indodax Hacked
The cryptocurrency world is filled with risk and uncertainty, both of which are heightened when the unthinkable happens and an exchange is hacked. Unfortunately, this is all too common, and the most recent exchange to fall victim is Indodax.
The Indodax hack is one of the biggest this year to date. Keep reading to learn what happened and what you should do if you are a customer of the cryptocurrency exchange.
The Indodax Hack: Everything You Need to Know
The Indodax hack happened on September 11th, 2024, and compromised all hot wallets. This means that if you have a hot wallet on the exchange, your wallet is one of those that has been compromised.
The hack targeted all cryptocurrencies stored in hot wallets, regardless of the specific currency. Over $22 million was lost, and Indodax has suspended operations for the time being while it tries to trace the source of the hack.
What Cryptocurrencies Were Stolen?
The Indodax hackers didn’t go after a specific cryptocurrency but rather targeted all currencies that were stored in hot wallets. Below is a list of most of the currencies stolen and the amounts taken.
· Ethereum: 600+
· USDT: 1,980,000+
· USDC: 242,000+
· Shiba Inu: 9,000,789,097+
· Bitcoin: 2,366+
· Arbitrum: 1,400,000+
· LINK: 4,300+
· DAI: 22,000+
· Sushi: 120,000+
· Polygon: 6,843,716+
· Tron: 2,400,000+
As you can see, the losses were substantial. This list includes all the major tokens stolen; however, it is not comprehensive. Even if you held a cryptocurrency not listed here, it was part of the theft.
What Did the Hackers Do?
The Indodax hack happened today, meaning this is a developing story. That being said, several of the company's security tools alerted the company to the hack.
SlowMist, one of the main security companies in blockchain, believes that the hacker was able to hack the platform’s withdrawal system, allowing them to withdraw all of the contents of all of the hot wallets at once.
Cyvers, another crypto security company, believes it was the signature function that was hacked and exploited.
Either way, the result was the same, and all funds held in hot wallets on Indodax were taken. The hacker was able to do this with just about 150 suspicious transactions on the network. After stealing some of the smaller tokens, the hacker then swapped them for ETH, using a mixing service to remove to currencies from the exchange anonymously.
Who Hacked Indodax?
It is still early in the investigation, and it is impossible to know who exactly hacked Indodax. At this moment it is suspected that the infamous hacker group, Lazarus Group, based out of North Korea, may be behind the hack.
The pattern of the hack matches previous hacks by this particular group, but their involvement has not yet been confirmed. Only time will tell if they were behind this hack.
What Happens to Indodax Customers?
Indodax customers do not need to panic as the exchange has a reserve balance of $369 million in cryptocurrencies, which can be used to pay customers back. That being said, it is likely that they will not pay customers back immediately, as they will want to re-secure their hot wallets and find the source of the hack before doing so.
If you are a current Indodax customer, you may want to contact customer service to determine when you can expect the stolen funds to be reimbursed. Currently, the platform is on lockdown, both online and on the app, so there won’t be any transactions in the near future.
Once you receive your reimbursement, you may want to consider storing your cryptocurrency in a cold wallet instead of a hot wallet, especially an offline one like Trezor or the Ledger. Regardless, there is no reason to panic. Just know that you may not be able to access your funds in the near future.
How to Protect Yourself from Hacks
Unfortunately, cryptocurrency hacks are becoming increasingly more common, as the WazirX platform was just hacked in July for $235 million. Hopefully these will be a red flag to platforms everywhere and ensure that other companies up their security practices in order to protect their customers from malicious actors.
While this is the hope, it isn’t fact, so you may want to consider taking the following actions to lower the chances that your crypto will be hacked or stolen via an exchange platform.
1. Don’t Store Your Funds on the Platform
Many individuals buy and store their cryptocurrency in the same place, which means if the exchange is hacked, so is their crypto. For this reason, we recommend using the exchange to buy but storing any not-in-use balances offline in a cold wallet.
2. Use Reputable Exchanges
Of course, using a bad exchange with poor security practices can get your money stolen, but Indodax was recently known as one of the better exchanges in Southeast Asia, and they still suffered a hack. Sometimes, even the best exchanges have security vulnerabilities that can’t be seen.
The truth is, there is no way to 100% prevent an exchange from getting hacked, though choosing a reputable one can lower the chances. This is why we recommend storing your crypto in a cold wallet even when you use the best exchanges.
Related: The 5 Best Decentralized Exchanges (2024)
3. Use Strong Passwords and 2FA
Not all hacks are on the backend of an exchange. Occasionally, hackers can mess with the front end by using a common password log to rob an exchange. Prevent yourself from becoming a victim of these types of hacks by always using secure passwords and 2FA on all of your accounts.
Overall, we hope that Indodax will be able to solve the hack and reimburse customers as soon as possible, but know that this type of risk is always present in the cryptocurrency community. So, make sure you are always taking the aforementioned precautions into mind whenever you buy, trade, or even just store, cryptocurrency.
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