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Taiwanese Investor Loses More Than $3 Million in Tether Units Following Account Hack

source-logo  livebitcoinnews.com 07 September 2021 18:00, UTC

More than $3 million in Tether units have been stolen from a private antique dealer in the nation of Taiwan, suggesting that even decentralized finance is vulnerable to the illicit dealings of those who would steal and commit dirty deeds to get their hands on money.

Investor Loses More Than $3 Million in Tether

The victim in question is a man named Liu Kun-Hung. He holds plenty of crypto in assorted online wallets. Two contained more than $3 million in Tether, a popular stable currency that’s allegedly backed by the U.S. dollar. However, it looks like that money has practically vanished overnight at the hands of thieves, marking the latest hack in what has been a heavy series over the past month.

The money was split between two digital accounts that were housed in the United States. All seemed fine when Liu noticed that three transactions occurred in early July. Money had been moved from his accounts to what law enforcement calls an “unknown cloud wallet.” He knew something was wrong because he had not authorized the transaction, nor had he been part of moving the money.

Liu decided to change the passwords on his account several times, but this didn’t stop the hackers from gaining access. He later reported the issues to the police, though by that time, much of the money had been placed in different cloud accounts that Liu did not own. By this stage, as much as $500,000 of the digital funds in Liu’s account had been drained.

In an interview, he states:

They (the hackers) can steal our personal information from anywhere: from staff or employees, from the communication apps that we use, or even from the platform used to open the account in Taiwan.

Liu was also able to contact several representatives of Tether and get them to freeze his accounts, which saved whatever money was left from being made off by the cyberthieves. Per Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau, the hacker’s protocol address has already been pointed out. They say the address is linked to a cloud-service provider, which explains how the money was moved.

The Cell Phone Led to the Login Info

According to law enforcement, it is believed that the hacker may have been able to infiltrate Liu’s account and Tether stash by sneaking into his personal phone – as well as the phones of several of his employees – and gaining login data through there. Liu says:

I won’t be the last victim. Digital currency uses the most advanced technologies and is supposed to be resilient and powerful in protecting vital information—security is one of the top reasons that we invest in it. But apparently that is not the case here. So far, I’ve been very disappointed and frustrated, and I strongly urge Tether and its related operators to help protect others, especially foreign investors like me.

livebitcoinnews.com