Virtual currency might be the future of finance but it presents its own set of challenges, not to mention that there are significant security risks still that highlight just how risky things can get. Earlier this month we heard about a bug freezing $280 million in virtual currency. If you thought that was bad, wait till you hear about the $30 million in virtual currency that was stolen recently.
Tether is a cryptocurrency startup that deals in digital tokens pegged to the dollar. It aims to serve as a proxy for the U.S. dollar that can be used easily between virtual currency exchanges like Poloniex, Bitfinex, and more.
The company has claimed that its systems were hacked and someone was able to steal $30.95 million in virtual currency. Tether has blamed the theft on a “malicious action by an external attacker” in a post on its website which has since been deleted.
Tether has promised to react swifty to ensure that the exchanges do not trade or reintroduce the stolen funds back into the cryptocurrency market in any way.
“As Tether is the issuer of the USDT managed asset, we will not redeem any of the stolen tokens, and we are in the process of attempting token recovery to prevent them from entering the broader ecosystem,” the post on its website said.
It’s going to manage that by suspending its back-end wallet service temporarily and updating the software to prevent the stolen tokens from moving from the attacker’s address.
Filed in . Read more about Virtual Currency. Source: cnbc