Komodo Hacks Own Users’ Accounts (To Protect Them From Hackers)
The threats lurking on the internet are getting more dangerous by the day. Cybersecurity experts are consistently trying to defeat the ill actors through cutting edge solutions. Komodo Platform, however, took the offbeat path by hacking into its own users’ accounts after detecting a bug that would have led the hackers to do the same.
Komodo Platform realized that things had escalated quickly enough to not act instantly.
A backdoor was found in one of the startup’s wallet application named Agama. In an attempt to prevent the hackers from exploiting the bug to hack into users’ accounts and steal the funds, the firm itself hacked into them and seized control of the funds by moving them to a safer wallet address.
Komodo Self-Hack: Soaring Success
As controversial as the step may sound, the Komodo team successfully prevented the theft of bitcoin and Komodo coin worth $13 million.
The immediate response came after the security team of npm JavaScript, along with Komodo, was able to connect the dots to a malicious package installed into the build chain. Had the team not discovered the hacking attempt, it would have led the hackers to gain access to wallet seeds and login passwords.
The security team at npm noted that the attack pattern used for inflicting the malware on the Agama app, which publishes a “useful” package (electron-native-notify), is becoming increasingly popular.
Beating the hackers at their own game has indeed come as a big success for the startup in a time when many major companies have fallen victim to cyber attacks and lost millions of dollars.
Users have been notified about the transactions and they can now easily claim their funds back to their wallet.
Avoid Getting Hacked: Act Responsibly
If you’re an active member of the crypto community, news of hacks and cryptocurrency thefts are probably not new to you. The industry has lost millions of dollars to severe hacks in the first quarter of 2019 itself; the latest being the Binance exchange hack that saw $40 million being washed out from Binance’s hot wallets.
Users need to realize that despite every company doing best to protect them against ill actors on the web, it also comes as their individual responsibility to protect their identity and funds while using them on the internet.
Are you sure enough about your crypto funds security? What methods do you use to shield yourself against hackers? Let us know in the comments below.
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