IOTA network, the Tangle, was stopped by the foundation after hackers stole funds from at least ten of their high-value accounts. This simple act of brilliance has sparked discussions into whether the crypto space was safe or not.
The Tangle Network, which is similar to but unlike Blockchain, is the dedicated network of the IOTA Foundation.
How the Hack Happened
IOTA Foundation is confident that users who opened Desktop Trinity account only between 17th of Dec, 2019 to Feb 18th, 2020 are the only users vulnerable to the Hack.
The Desktop version of Trinity wallet in use during this period incorporated the use of Moonpay, a service that allows users to purchase IOTA from the app. The vulnerability of the wallet and gateway to the breach, however, was found to lie in the Moonpay service. This vulnerability was exploited by hackers and allowed them to gain access to the private wallet key.
The patched version of Trinity wallet released after the attack doesn’t have Moonpay service.
IOTA, however, promised wallet users that have imputed their credit card details into their wallet, that to the best of their knowledge their credit card information was unlikely to have been compromised by the security breach. This, however, didn’t curb the fears of many. Hackers may have obtained a number of seeds from IOTA users.
IOTA’s Instruction to Users.
After releasing an update for their compromised Trinity wallet, the IOTA foundation is telling and directing users to change their wallet password and to use the seed Migration tool to protect their token.
Seeds are 81 character-keys that hold IOTA tokens on Tangle. Seeds of the ten high-value accounts that got robbed were compromised.
The seed migration tool will allow users to ‘migrate’ and acquire new seeds. The foundation is yet to release this tool and promise to release the seed Migration tool soon to enable this process. The Tangle network will not be restarted until after the tool is made available. This way, compromised seeds cannot be used by hackers to empty accounts.
The Fear of Many
The fear of some people familiar with the crypto world is if the crypto space is still safe. While cryptocurrency and Blockchain technology allows for anonymity and uncensored transaction by a third party, one of its other appealing features is the sense of security.
However, Cyber thefts seen recently have put this sense of security in doubt. This one incident is proof positive that the Blockchain Chain technology is still a work in progress and that even very secure platforms can be vulnerable too. Before the Trinity hacks and security breached, Trinity was widely considered extremely safe to use.
Experts, however, point to the fact that wallets are not Blockchain technology in themselves and that while Blockchain technology is extremely difficult to be defrauded, services associated with them can be. It is also noteworthy to know that Tangle is a developing network that steamed off from Blockchain technology. Though they work in almost similar ways, they are still different. Cryptocurrencies like IOTA are still finding their feet when it comes to data breaches and working with existing Blockchain technology.