Bybit’s $1.5 billion hacking incident: Operational security becomes a new challenge

The article “Bybit’s $1.5 billion hacking incident: Operational security becomes a new challenge”(source: Trail of Bits) analyzes the $1.5 billion cryptocurrency theft on the Bybit exchange on February 21, 2025, which is the largest cryptocurrency theft in history. Rather than exploiting smart contracts or technical vulnerabilities, the attacker used sophisticated malware to invade the signer’s device of the multi-signature cold storage wallet, manipulated the interface and tricked the signer into signing regular transactions. nbsp; This incident marks a new era in cryptocurrency security, as the focus of attacks shifts from technical vulnerabilities to operational security issues. The article pointed out that North Korean state-backed threat actors use sophisticated social engineering and cross-platform tools to launch attacks on the human and operational aspects of centralized exchanges. Similar attack patterns have previously appeared in incidents such as WazirX (July 2024) and Radiant Capital (October 2024), showing that attackers ‘capabilities are constantly maturing. The article emphasized that a single security measure is not enough to withstand such complex attacks. Organizations need to adopt a comprehensive security strategy that includes infrastructure isolation, defense in depth, regular security training, and incident response plans. The author calls on the cryptocurrency industry to learn from traditional security experience and immediately strengthen operational security, otherwise similar large-scale hacking incidents will continue to occur.

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