Hackers stole the equivalent of roughly $90 million from Iran\u2019s largest cryptocurrency exchange on Wednesday, according to multiple independent crypto-tracking firms. <\/p>\n
A skilled pro-Israel hacking group known as \u201cPredatory Sparrow\u201d took credit for the cyberattack, which appeared to be aimed at further weakening Iran amid Israeli\u2019s military strikes on Tehran. <\/p>\n
In a post in Farsi on X, the hackers said that they had hit Iranian crypto exchange Nobitex, claiming that Iran used the exchange to skirt international sanctions. And in an extraordinary move, the hackers may have effectively thrown the stolen crypto away by transferring it to digital \u201cwallets\u201d that they don\u2019t have control over, according to multiple cybersecurity experts. <\/p>\n
Nobitex acknowledged the incident in a statement on its website on Wednesday, saying that access to the crypto exchange had been \u201csuspended,\u201d as a precaution, until further notice. Crypto-tracking firms Elliptic and TRM Labs confirmed the crypto was stolen and sent to \u201cwallets\u201d or crypto accounts, with an expletive that referenced Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). <\/p>\n
In a separate hack on Tuesday, Predatory Sparrow said it had destroyed data at Iran\u2019s state-owned Bank Sepah, claiming IRGC members used the bank\u2019s services as a justification for the action. Iran\u2019s state-affiliated Fars news agency warned of potential disruptions to bank services at gas stations. <\/p>\n
The pair of stunning cyberattacks mark an escalation in Israel and Iran\u2019s years-long shadow war in cyberspace, where the arch-enemies \u2014 or their supporters \u2014 have conducted digital spying and data-destroying attacks for tactical advantage. <\/p>\n
Predatory Sparrow has emerged in the last five years to claim spectacular cyberattacks that have previously disrupted an Iranian steel mill and payments at Iranian gas stations. The hackers cast themselves as anti-government Iranian hacktivists but are widely suspected among cybersecurity experts of having ties to Israel. <\/p>\n
Much of the cyber activity in recent days, as Israel and Iran trade missile strikes, appears aimed at sowing panic in the two countries. Israelis, for example, have received mass text messages impersonating authorities that claim that bomb shelters aren\u2019t safe. <\/p>\n
The Iranian government, meanwhile, has warned citizens not to use the WhatsApp messaging service out of fear that Israel was collecting information from those chats. A spokesperson for Meta, which owns WhatsApp, has called those claims false and underscored that WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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