DragonEx, a top 30 crypto exchange, became the latest victim of a hack after an undisclosed amount of tokens were stolen from the exchange. Very few details have emerged so far about the hack, partly due to a blackout imposed by DragonEx following suspicious activity on their social media channels, with only minimal information released so far.
#DragonEx #DT #Crypto #BTC #ETH #EOS #News
DragonEx hacked; 138k R tokens stolenhttps://t.co/juHXIog5Wt— DragonEx Newsroom (@DragonExNews) March 26, 2019
Communications Blackout
The first notification came through the exchange’s Telegram channel, where they announced that the hack had taken place Sunday and had seen “our users’ crypto assets and Platform crypto assets… transferred and stolen”. The team was able to retrieve some of the coins, they said and were working with authorities in such far-flung locations as Estonia, Thailand, and Singapore in order to trace the others. More information is expected towards the end of the week as the team assesses the full extent of the damage, but they have stated that they will honor the lost funds and take responsibility “no matter what.”
The decision to honor lost funds is either an act of generosity or an admission of partial guilt, something we only know when more details emerge. As is the case these days, heads of major exchanges announced that they were putting efforts in place to restrict the flow of stolen coins to their platforms, with Binance head Changpeng Zhao even producing a schematic to show the known flow of the coins so far:
A few guys asked about DragonEx funds.
As always, @binance will freeze any identify-able stolen funds. Here is a snippet of a chart produced by our internal big-date risk mgnt system yesterday. Not much funds have came to Binance this time around. Hackers learn.
Stay #SAFU. pic.twitter.com/9NYfn8zMj6
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) March 27, 2019
Keeping a Low Profile
Given that DragonEx wasn’t a particularly popular exchange the news hasn’t garnered too much attention and hasn’t been picked up by the mainstream media. Also, because the amount taken wasn’t divulged and the press loves a juicy number they can slap at the front of a hacking headline. Perhaps other exchanges should follow this example and not release figures up front, thus reducing the attractiveness to media agencies.
What do you think? Have DragonEx done the right thing by waiting to release the details of what was taken, or do you think it makes no difference? Let us know in the comments below.
