VeChain loses $ 6.6 million in professional training brands to hackers in attack on buyback wallet

Note: This story has been updated to provide more details about the incident.

The VeChain Foundation’s wallet was compromised in a hacking attack on funds earmarked for the foundation’s buyback program.

According to an announcement by the VeChain Foundation on Dec. 13, an unknown hacker rerouted 1.1 billion vocational training tokens valued at approximately $ 6,600,000 at press time from the VeChain Foundation buyback wallet to a personal wallet address.

Security breaches are likely caused by internal misconduct that goes unnoticed due to human error

When the incident was first updated, the VeChain Foundation determined that the hack was in no way related to the operation of the actual standard procedure or VeChain’s hardware wallet solutions.

According to the statement, the VeChain’s security breach was likely due to the misconduct of one of its employees on the finance team. In particular, the person allegedly set up a buyback account, which is in partial breach of the standard procedure approved by the Foundation. The audit team did not address the human error misconduct, the announcement said.

Measures to mitigate the situation and improve clarity

In the same announcement, the Foundation set out a number of measures designed to mitigate the incident and provide more clarity. Because of this, the company provided a link with the hacker’s address marked on VeChainStats in order to immediately track other addresses that interact with the hacker’s address.

As part of its efforts, the company notified all exchanges to monitor, blacklist and freeze all funds originating from the attacker, as well as withdrawals from their respective wallets.

In addition, VeChain has initiated a security investigation for other crypto assets that are subject to the custody of the foundation in order to prevent further violations. The Singapore-based company also reported the incident to Singapore law enforcement agencies and will continue to monitor the situation and work with cybersecurity and law enforcement professionals to bring clarity, the statement said.

The VET token slips by more than 4% in the hack

VeChain is an important cryptocurrency and blockchain platform for improving supply chain management and business processes. The VET token is the 28th largest crypto asset by market capitalization of $ 325 million at the time of this writing. Following the news, the token fell over 4%, with market cap falling to a low of $ 320 million. According to Coin360, the altcoin is recovering slightly at the time of going to press.

24-hour price chart for VET. Source: Coin360

VeChain, best known for delivering its blockchain Thor blockchain to Walmart China’s blockchain platform, recently partnered with Cointelegraph Consulting, a division of Cointelegraph that aims to help roll out blockchain technology around the world.