Vietnamese authorities have arrested and convicted a hacker who stole money and data from a local cryptocurrency exchange. The man, who was arrested and charged with extorting the owner of the trading platform, was ordered to return the money he embezzled.
Vietnamese court jails hacker for attacking crypto exchange website
A resident of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for stealing 300 million Vietnamese dong (nearly $13,000) from a crypto entrepreneur whose coin trading site he subjected to threats. cyberattacks.
Hacker Nham Hoang Khang was charged with extortion and sentenced by the city people’s court on Friday, the English-language edition of the VN Express daily reported. He was also ordered to return the stolen money.
The crypto exchange was created by Vu Ngoc Chau in 2018 to connect potential buyers and sellers of cryptocurrencies, charging fees for transactions he facilitated. Users had to open accounts and provide personal information such as phone number, email address and a copy of an ID.
In October 2020, Khang used his phone to create several accounts on the platform. He discovered that the website, T-rex.exchange, had several vulnerabilities that could be exploited to obtain both data and digital currency.
The following month, the hacker managed to take control of the account of a T-rex employee and about 30,000 USDT. The team detected the unusual transactions and locked the account to prevent further transactions with the cryptocurrency.
Once he discovered that he no longer had access to the compromised account, Khang obtained the personal data of 29,000 customers and created a large number of fake orders, while threatening further attacks.
He also demanded to be paid $20,000 or he would reveal that the exchange had been hacked. Chau, the owner, received multiple threats and eventually told his employees to send 300 million dong to Khang. He filed a complaint with law enforcement in mid-2021.
In Vietnam, cryptocurrencies are not yet legalized or regulated. Despite their popularity among traders and investors, bitcoins and others are still not recognized as assets or means of payment by the State Bank of Vietnam and Vietnamese law.
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