Human intelligence is an unprecedented phenomenon, which deserves every bit of recognition. This isn’t a hollow statement, by any means, as we have enough evidence at our disposal that backs it up quite well. However, despite all our prodigious capabilities, we do suffer from some glaring flaws. These flaws take different shapes under different circumstances, but they are always present. Now, if we talk about how the said human imperfections show up in a practical setting, we must initiate the discussion with an example, and what’s more interesting than picking technology to be the core representation here? While technology’s achievements are unmatched by a fair amount of distance, they can’t really cover up its shortcomings. You see, when we start to consider the impact of, let’s say, a cyberattack, that’s when the whole picture pretty much crystallizes itself. Moving parallel to all the tech benefits, cybersecurity issues have been causing disruptions within the world for a while now. Our attempts at shoring up the defense, in turn, have only triggered major upgrades on the hacking communities’ part, and these dangerously unbalanced dynamics were once again on show during a recent cyberattack.
Qubit Finance, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, has officially confirmed that it was hit by a high-value theft, which saw the hackers stealing over $80 million in cryptocurrency. Basically a bridge between separate blockchains, Qubit allows you to make a deposit in one cryptocurrency and then withdraw in another, but what is otherwise a smooth operation took up a devastating look after hackers spotted a security flaw in the company’s smart contract code. According to CertiK, the said flaw set up a situation where these hackers were able to deposit 0 Ethereum and withdraw around $80 million in Binance coin. If certain reports are to be trusted, it sits as the biggest hack of 2022 so far.
“In summary, the deposit function was a function that should not be used after depositETH was newly developed, but it remained in the contract. The team is cooperating with security and network partners, including Binance. Supply, Redeem, Borrow, Repay, Bridge, and Bridge redemption functions are disabled until further notice. Claiming is available. We are continuing to investigate and are in communications with Binance,” Qubit explained in its incident report.
To control the damage, Qubit did offer a $250,000 bounty to the hacker, an amount that later became $1 million, except it all landed on deaf ears.