A total of 153,000 Ether - $32 million USD in Ethereum - has been stolen by hackers on a few days ago (July 20), through abusing the Parity Technologies’ popular multi-signature wallet software. According to the data on blockchain, it is believed that the hacker(s) successfully cashed out part of the stolen funds on July 21, through an anonymous exchange platform Changelly.
These funds were part of various ICOs which have successfully ended recently such as Swarm City, Edgeless Casino, and Aeternity. Swarm City confirmed that they have lost over 44,000 Ether to the hackers and others will be announcing soon. In the meantime, the White Hat Group hackers (these are the good guys) successfully drained over 377,000 Ether (valued at $85.7 million) to prevent the Black Hat hackers from stealing more funds.
The funds drained by the White Hat Group are soon to be returned to their respective owners whilst they have also announced that a new multi-sig wallet with the vulnerability problem solved will be released to the public soon.
In the meantime, the hacker(s) successfully transferred the stolen funds with some already been cashed out. A total of 70,000 Ether have been transferred from the hacker’s address through seven different transactions with 10,000 Ether each. Furthermore, it is believed that over 400 Ether – valued at $90,000 USD - have been cashed out successfully by the hacker(s).
Although Changelly has put efforts into tracking down the hacker(s), no definite answers are yet available as with their anonymous exchange feature which keeps no customer information. The hacker(s) are believed to have used the Tor service to access the exchange platform – leaving no information about IP addresses or exchange fiat currencies.
In an attempt to further prevent the hacker(s) from cashing out, Changelly announced that they have blacklisted the hacker(s)’ address and are willing to fully cooperate with MyEtherWallet, EtherScan, and others who can be of help to the investigation.
It is recommended that all Ether users be extra cautious with opening links and emails and stay up-to-date with news further provided by relevant platforms. Please note that no other Ethereum wallets were affected and only Parity’s multi-signature wallets version 1.5 or higher were breached by the hacker(s).