July has already witnessed crypto hacks worth upto $14 million

• Two Canadian teenagers recently executed a crypto hack, stealing $4.2 million from a U.S. victim.
• Last weekend, cross-chain bridge Poly Network suffered a hack worth $5-$10 million.

July has hardly started, and crypto attacks have already gripped the industry. On 4 July, Canadian authorities arrested and charged two teenagers for hacking $4.2 million worth of cryptocurrencies from an American citizen, CBC reported.

The accused, both hailing from Hamilton, Ontario, pretended to be Coinbase support and got unauthorized access to the victim’s account. Then, they allegedly stole $4.2 million in Bitcoin [BTC] and Ethereum [ETH] assets. In fact, the accused allegedly possessed over $13.4 million in cryptocurrency.

A police officer from Hamilton termed the crypto hacking tactic used by the accused teenagers as spear phishing. This method entails identifying a specific individual and persuading them to disclose their account information.

The officer also told that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Secret Service’s Electronic Crimes Task Force (ECTF) launched the enquiry in June itself.

Due to its prominence as a major crypto exchange, scammers frequently imitate Coinbase staff. A group of investors filed a complaint against Coinbase last year, arguing that the firm failed to take appropriate precautions against such scams.

Crypto assets hacked over Poly Network

Previously, on 2 July, cross-chain bridge Poly Network suffered a hack that compromised 57 crypto assets across 10 blockchains, including Ethereum, BNB Chain [BNB], Polygon [MATIC], Avalanche [AVAX], Heco, OKX and Metis.

Dear users, we would like to inform you that Poly Network is temporarily suspending its services due to a recent attack. We are actively engaging with relevant parties and diligently assessing the extent of the affected assets. 【1/3】

— Poly Network (@PolyNetwork2) July 2, 2023

Hackers successfully manipulated a smart contract function on the cross-chain bridge protocol, adding that services would be suspended for some time.

Online sleuth PeckShield reported on the same day that the hacker had transferred crypto assets worth at least $5 million.

#PeckShieldAlert @PolyNetwork2 exploiter has transferred more than $5M worth of cryptos out on #Ethereum, #BNBChain, and #Polygon, especially 1.5K $ETH ($2.88M) to 0x23f4…c671, 440 $ETH ($844K) to 0xc8Ab…C42F, and 300 $ETH (~$575K) to 0xfD3E…b778https://t.co/EbYdTo3xIg… pic.twitter.com/I5Lg9UJ0eU

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) July 2, 2023

On 3 July, blockchain audit company Certik reported that the exploit led to around $10 million worth of crypto assets collected across five externally owned addresses.

Another breach of the Poly network had occurred on August 2021. The hackers were later linked to the Lazarus Group, a North Korean hacking outfit. The group was successful in taking crypto assets worth over $600 million.