A&D Forensics Brief, December 2, 2022
A&D Forensics
Financial and Blockchain Intelligence Consulting, Blockchain Forensics, Crypto Investigations and Training Firm.
Regulatory and Crime News
The case of data breach was revealed by a Tech crunch report in 2019. Following the report, an investigation ensued in April 2021. The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced on Nov. 28 that it has fined Facebook developer Meta 265 million euros ($274.8 million) for a breach of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has advised Nigerians to be on alert while using WhatsApp as their data could be exposed due to the recent alleged breach on the platform.
Ankr, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol based on BNB Chain, has acknowledged being affected by a multi-million dollar exploit on December 1. On Dec. 2, around 12:35 UTC, on-chain security analyzer PeckShield appears to have become aware of the attack for the first time. Ankr tweeted an hour after the assault to clarify that the aBNB token had been abused and that they were working with exchanges to stop trading the compromised token right now.
District Judge Joanna Seybert presided over the case of 56 year old Sharon Gardner, the former Director of Food Services for the Hempstead Union Free School District, who pleaded guilty for conspiracy to commit honest service wire fraud with Maria Caliendo, aged 57, owner of food service providers Smart Starts NY, Inc. Both defenders could spend 20 years each if sentenced. “Gardner abused her position of trust as a school official in order to enrich herself with kickbacks she used to pay for overseas vacations and home furnishings. Now she will face the consequences for her greed,” stated Attorney Peace.
The FBI Washington Criminal Division announced that Joseph Tamjong, age 51, of Lanham, Maryland, pleaded guilty on charges of defrauding the D.C. Medicaid program out of $733,405. Tamjong admitted that he submitted false timesheets that claimed he provided personal care services when in fact he did not. Tamjong faces a recommended 27 - 33 months jail term.
In a press release, Exchange aggregator 1 inch announced the release of a new tool called “Rabbithole” on Nov. 25, which the company says will protect traders against malicious “sandwich attacks". Sandwich attack refers to an attack on large transactions, wherein a clients' transaction is duplicated and executed before and after it to manipulate prices of assets. According to TarLogic, over 60,000 Ether totalling $72million has been lost to Ethereum transaction attackers.
As part of its proof-of-reserve (PoR) audits brought on by the demise of FTX, cryptocurrency exchange Binance is collaborating with accounting firm Mazars. The Wall Street Journal reported on Nov. 30 that Mazars, the accounting firm that worked for the business of former US President Donald Trump, had been chosen as the official auditor to carry out a "third party financial verification" as part of Binance's PoR upgrades.
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Recall that Coinbase recently filed for amicus curiae status in support of Ripple in the protracted Ripple labs versus SEC case. However, a few weeks later, Coinbase announced that its wallet not exchange would delist XRP and three other cryptocurrencies, citing low user activities. Could there be trouble lurking in the shadows? Is there an information Coinbase discovered that is not yet public?
In response to the recent Uber data breach ruling, Coinbase attempted to make its bug bounty program restrictions more clear in a blog post on November 30. Although the firm still invites "responsible" discovery of security flaws, individuals who misuse this method will not be eligible for bug rewards, the company said.
Bitpanda, an Australian based crypto exchange, announced that it has secured a crypto custody license from the German financial authority, BaFin. The CEO Eric Demuth told Cointelegraph that this license is “the result of many months of hard work by the entire Bitpanda team.”
In an unfolding series of events, another 255 BTC ($4.1million)was transferred to crypto exchange OKX as the worst month in crypto history comes to an end. Twitter User ZachXBT used on-chain analytics to research the eventual fate of the hacker’s stolen assets. According to a CNBC report, the hacker has stolen a total of $477 million and swapped to mostly BTC and Ethereum.
In an official public announcement on Nov. 30, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said that Binance is committed to re-entering the Japanese market under regulatory compliance. The acquisition of Sakura Exchange BitCoin (SEBC), a Japan Financial Services Agency-licensed business, would mark the re-entry of the global crypto exchange into the Japanese market after four years.
After many years of development, Brazil's Chamber of Deputies voted on Tuesday 30 November to pass on a crypto regulation bill to Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, whose term ends on Dec. 31 to make way for the return of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The crypto regulation is set to define digital assets and their service providers, as well as help guard against money laundering and fraud.