Binance Reveals How Hackers Prepared Their Attack for Months

The massive hack at Binance didn't start with an attack on the blockchain, but with a fake job interview. Hackers posed as employees of a fictitious company and managed to get malicious software onto a Binance computer.

This is according to a new research report published by the crypto exchange on Tuesday. The attack, which stole $6.3 billion worth of crypto, was prepared for months.

According to Binance, the attack began months before the hackers struck on October 29.

In September, a Binance software developer was approached via a job site by someone posing as a company project director.

The employee was invited for a job interview and spoke via a messaging app with someone claiming to be the director of the company.

During the interview, he was given a programming assignment for which he had to download files. They seemed reliable, but in reality they contained malicious software. This gave the hackers undetected access to his computer.

According to Binance, the fake application was part of a carefully prepared attack. The perpetrators had also previously collected information about employees of the crypto exchange.

In June, another software developer had unintentionally installed malicious software when he wanted to use a popular AI programming tool.

This gave the hackers information about his work and about colleagues responsible for Binance's digital wallets.

With access to the infected computer, the hackers were able to penetrate Binance's systems further and further.

On October 20, nine days before the theft, they used an internal AI tool to access the computers of two other software developers. These employees worked on the systems with which Binance stores crypto coins and processes transactions.

According to the investigation report, the hackers were ultimately able to carry out unauthorized transactions.

On October 29, they struck. Within a short time, about 6.3 billion dollars worth of crypto coins were stolen from Binance's digital wallets.

According to fellow CEO Richard Teng, the attack was prepared for months. The hackers combined fake applications, malicious software and AI techniques to penetrate ever deeper into the crypto exchange's systems.