Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, has suspended deposits and withdrawals following a suspected cyberattack estimated to have affected assets worth $6.3 billion.
The cryptocurrency trading platform disclosed the security breach in a statement on Friday, saying it had launched an investigation into the incident and was working with blockchain partners to freeze the affected assets.
According to Binance, preliminary findings suggest that the attack may have originated from a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer, which allegedly provided the attacker with access to a service container used to initiate unauthorised withdrawal transactions.
“Binance’s initial investigation suggests that the security incident may involve a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorised withdrawal transactions,” the company stated.
