Skip to main content

$30 Million: Ether Reported Stolen Due to Parity Wallet Breach

Smart contract coding company Parity has issued a security alert, warning of a vulnerability in version 1.5 or later of its wallet software.
So far, 150,000 ethers, worth $30 million, have been reported by the company as stolen, data confirmed by Etherscan.io. As reported by the startup, the issue is the result of a bug in a specific multi-signature contract known as wallet.sol. Data suggests the issue was mitigated, however, as 377,000 ethers that were potentially vulnerable to the issue were recovered by white hat hackers.
Parity ranked the severity of the bug as "critical" in its public remarks, urging "any user with funds in a multi-sig wallet" move their funds to a secure address.
According to Parity founder and CTO Gavin Wood, at least three ether addresses have been compromised as a result of the bug.
Writing in the Parity Gitter channel, Wood said:
"There is an effort by the foundation underway to secure funds in other wallets to prevent any further compromises; they will make an announcement in their own time."
On social media, notable blockchain specialists are already weighing in on the situation, with Proof of Existence creator Manual Araoz suggesting that the compromised addresses could potentially belong to notable owners.
Specifically, he identified Edgeless Casino, Swarm City, and æternity – three recent initial coin offering projects built on ethereum – as potentially having been compromised in the thefts.
As of press time, Swarm City had confirmed the loss of 44,055 ETH. Edgeless Casino and æternity have not yet given any official comment.
Overall, it's the latest security setback for an ethereum project in recent days, following a hack on CoinDash in which $10 million was stolen in an ICO earlier this week.

Comments

Post a comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to spend your Bitcoin and Ethereum in South Africa

As Bitcoin and Ethereum gain popularity among investors, an increasing number of users are creating cryptocurrency wallets. The wallets are either hosted through an online provider or stored on the user’s hardware. From these wallets, cryptocurrency owners can make transactions on a blockchain, interact with exchanges and other users, and in the case of the Ethereum blockchain, programme autonomous contracts. Sending cryptocurrency through the blockchain is quick and easy, but using cryptocurrency in lieu of fiat currency is still limited. South African stores and services are slower to adopt cryptocurrencies than more developed countries, but users can still buy products locally with Bitcoin or Ethereum. Stores There is a growing list of stores in South Africa which accept Bitcoin as a payment option – many of which offer the option by allowing users to pay with PayFast. PayFast has partnered with South African Bitcoin exchange Luno to provide users with a way to pay for products or…
Post a comment
Read more

Bitcoin in Africa: Insights from the Continent’s Biggest Bitcoin Exchange

Isn’t it absurd that nearly 326 million people representing 80% of the adult population in Africa do not have access to bank accounts? This wretched situation denies countless of people financial freedom in the so-called dark continent. Bureaucratic tenors and economic exclusion inter alia have paved the way for the current phenomenon.

Last year a study of 10 African nations with unusual inflationary ratio had South Sudan registering an unimaginable inflation rate of 295 percent. Egypt had the slightest with 12.30 percent. African governments continue to plunder the riches of the African people through Inflation. This makes it considerably insurmountable for individuals to conserve their resources. Moreover, public sector borrowing has crowded out the efficient private sector that can put credit to good use. The IMF estimates that averagely credit to the private sector is estimated at 30 percent of GDP in Sub-Sahara Africa. CCN spoke to Werner van Rooyen, Head of Business Development …
Post a comment
Read more

Duncan Logan just tweeted that he's on board Electroneum

I have been a buyer and holder of bitcoin and Etherreum for a long time but this will be the first ICO I buy into--Duncan Logan.

What is Electroneum?

Electroneum (ETN) is a cryptocurrency that can be mined with a smartphone, requiring almost no technical knowledge or prior experience. This sets it apart from other cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin) which require expensive hardware and technical know-how to mine.
Electroneum’s unique mobile mining experience allows anyone with a smartphone to earn ETN coins by letting the miner app run in the background.
It was designed specifically with mobile users in mind, thereby appealing to a potential market of 2.2 billion smartphone users around the world. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, Electroneum has a user-friendly, beginner-oriented interface that allows users to seamlessly transfer ETN coins between one another, check their balances, and mine coins.
Being a cryptocurrency, Electroneum is created, held, and spent electronically, and has no phy…
Post a comment
Read more