Iranian cryptocurrency exchange Nobitex hacked About $90 million on Wednesday, on the surface $223 million in exchange utilization Earlier this month.
Below the surface, nothing is there. Deeper digging shows that this is not just a cash snatch, it is actually not a cash snatch at all, but a political message, which could ultimately be a blow to one of the main combatants in the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
Pro-Israel activist group Gonjeshke Darande, the hackers demonstrated their indifference to the money gains that are essentially burning the words “terrorist” by transferring stolen funds into a series of inaccessible “vanity” wallets.
Politically motivated destruction
“This seems to be a politically motivated act of sabotage, not a financially motivated hacker,” Oval co-founder Tom Robinson said in an interview. “The use of vanity addresses seems to be motivated by hopes of conveying messages to Nobitex and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards.”
The group’s Falsey’s name is Predatory Sparrow, leaked the next day Exchange’s source codeleave any tokens that are prone to stealing on the platform.
“Bypass sanctions and don’t pay.” Gonjeshke Darande Written on X In addition to screenshots of the “vanity” wallet that stores stolen funds.
The regime has been under sanctions for years due to international concerns about human rights records and attempts to develop nuclear weapons. EU Introduced sanctions in 2011 Since then, they have been renewed every year, and even strengthened during this period. US sanctions Dating back to 1979to the Iranian Revolution.
Israel said Iran has vowed to eliminate the Jewish state multiple times over the years and he is on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Iran said its plan was purely peaceful. Last week, ahead of Israel’s air strikes, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had already Violated its non-proliferation commitment.
Gonjeshke Darande’s tweet refers to allegations about Iran Use cryptocurrency to evade sanctionsRelated to this, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Angus King proposed to former U.S. President Joe Biden in 2024.
Without Nobitex, Iran is a country already hampered by oil and financial sanctions and may have difficulty transferring capital during times of intense conflict. This could undermine its efforts to mobilize and launch attacks on Israel.
The truth about Vanity Wallet
There is some discussion about Vanity Wallet. Will the group have access to the filth token or will it be burned forever?
“In fact, the attacker actually controlled these addresses,” Hacken security researcher Yehor Rudytsia told Coindesk.
Rudytsia says that using private keys to create dresser addresses to unlock them. “Rudytsia said. However, finding a private key of 26 characters would require up to ~2⁵² of experiments. “It is actually not feasible to find a private key mapped to a public address like this.” ”
This means the money has disappeared.
