Millions in crypto stolen in Ankr, Helio attacks

Threat actors were able to steal at least $15 million in cryptocurrency from separate but connected attacks against Web3 infrastructure provider Ankr and cryptocurrency platform Helio, reports The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. Ankr disclosed that it had $5 million in Binance coin exfiltrated from its platform, prompting Binance to freeze nearly $3 million in funds and pause Ankr token withdrawals. Attackers were able to compromise Ankr by leveraging a developer private key for minting 6 quadrillion aBNBc, which was then exchanged for assets, including almost $4.5 million USDC before exchanging them for ETH, according to Blockchain Intelligence Group President Lance Morginn, who added that nearly $3 million of the stolen funds have been placed in Tornado Cash. Meanwhile, Helio announced that it was also compromised in relation to Ankr. Over $3.37 billion have been stolen from cryptocurrency platforms through the first 11 months of 2022, with $391.6 million exfiltrated in November alone.