Cashaa Wallet Hacked

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Cashaa

The Cashaa exchange operated an OTC desk, and allowed one of the employees in India to process withdrawals from a large hot wallet using their personal computer without any multi-signature wallet.

The employee's wallet fell victim to malware and a large sum of 336 BTC was withdrawn. It does not appear that this balance represents customer funds.

This exchange or platform is based in United Kingdom, or the incident targeted people primarily in United Kingdom.

About Cashaa

"On July 11, fraudsters hacked into U.K.-based cryptocurrency exchange Cashaa’s digital payment platform which serves Indian customers, and stole 336 Bitcoin (BTC), worth approximately $3.1million."

"The first attack on Cashaa’s wallets actually occurred at 10:57AM UTC on July 10th, 2020 (6:57AM EDT on July 10th, 2020). One of the Cashaa's Bitcoin wallets, at address 1Jt9mebBwqCk8ijrVDoT5aySu2q9zpeKde, had 1.059770800 BTC (about $9800 USD) transferred to the attacker's account at 14RYUUaMW1shoxCav4znEh64xnTtL3a2Ek. According to Cashaa’s report, the attacker stole the victim’s Bitcoin wallet information on Blockchain.info by gaining access to the victim's computer."

"The second attack occurred at 12:10PM UTC on July 11th, 2020 (8:10PM EDT on July 11th, 2020), across eight separate Bitcoin wallets owned by Cashaa. A total of 335.91312085 BTC (~$3.1M USD) was transferred to the same recipient address and the wallet information stolen in the same manner as the first attack."

"Cashaa suspects a piece of malware was installed onto the system that facilitated exchange transfers, such as user withdrawals. The malware notified the hacker when an employee logged into the account on July 10 and made two transfers from the wallet." "[S]ecurity researchers believe that there may be two internal operating errors or that the victim's computer was compromised with a malicious backdoor program."

"A cyberattack occurred on our system that was able to penetrate a vulnerable machine of a ‘Cashaa India OTC’ Employee. Within microseconds, all the funds in that account were wiped off in this first transaction signed."

"The incident occurred on 10th July 2020, with one of our OTC Transaction managers, positioned in East Delhi, India. On 8th July 2020, the employee had reported a machine malfunction with the systems provided to him by the company. Hence, he requested to operate from his personal computer and set up multiple alternative online wallets on various platforms like Blockchain.com, Huobi etc. We made an exception and allowed him to do so keeping ‘customer experience’ in mind for the ongoing OTC deals/transactions. After the mishap, the investigation team has secured the abused system for further investigation and the employee has been suspended until the end of the investigation."

"Following the attack, the company stopped all crypto-related transactions." "The fintech has reportedly filed a cybercrime incident report to the Delhi Crime Bureau under the cryptocurrency-related crime category." "Cashaa’s management aims to ensure that the hacker is not able to sell the stolen Bitcoins on other cryptocurrency exchanges. It has identified and publicly shared the hacker’s BTC address, so that everyone can track whenever the funds are moved to other addresses."

"The Chief Executive Officer of Cashaa, Kumar Gaurav, said that they called the board meeting to decide whether the company will bear all the losses caused by the hack." "An emergency board meeting is being held to decide our further actions." "[T]he company claims that its prima facia users were not affected due to the recent hack." "There is no interruption in our banking services across the globe; all accounts are working without any interruption. I thank everyone for the support and hard work."

This exchange or platform is based in United Kingdom, or the incident targeted people primarily in United Kingdom.

The background of the exchange platform, service, or individuals involved, as it would have been seen or understood at the time of the events.

Include:

• Known history of when and how the service was started.
• What problems does the company or service claim to solve?
• What marketing materials were used by the firm or business?
• Audits performed, and excerpts that may have been included.
• Business registration documents shown (fake or legitimate).
• How were people recruited to participate?
• Public warnings and announcements prior to the event.

Don't Include:

• Any wording which directly states or implies that the business is/was illegitimate, or that a vulnerability existed.
• Anything that wasn't reasonably knowable at the time of the event.

There could be more than one section here. If the same platform is involved with multiple incidents, then it can be linked to a main article page.

The Reality

This sections is included if a case involved deception or information that was unknown at the time. Examples include:

• When the service was actually started (if different than the "official story").
• Who actually ran a service and their own personal history.
• How the service was structured behind the scenes. (For example, there was no "trading bot".)
• Details of what audits reported and how vulnerabilities were missed during auditing.

What Happened

The specific events of the loss and how it came about. What actually happened to cause the loss and some of the events leading up to it.

Key Event Timeline - Cashaa Wallet Hacked

Date	Event	Description
July 11th, 2020	Main Event	Expand this into a brief description of what happened and the impact. If multiple lines are necessary, add them here.

Technical Details

This section includes specific detailed technical analysis of any security breaches which happened. What specific software vulnerabilities contributed to the problem and how were they exploited?

Total Amount Lost

The total amount lost has been estimated at $3,100,000 USD.

How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?

Immediate Reactions

How did the various parties involved (firm, platform, management, and/or affected individual(s)) deal with the events? Were services shut down? Were announcements made? Were groups formed?

Ultimate Outcome

What was the end result? Was any investigation done? Were any individuals prosecuted? Was there a lawsuit? Was any tracing done?

Total Amount Recovered

There do not appear to have been any funds recovered in this case.

What funds were recovered? What funds were reimbursed for those affected users?

Ongoing Developments

What parts of this case are still remaining to be concluded?

General Prevention Policies

This is an illustration of the importance of multi-signature. One individual can suffer a breach, however when 3 or more signatures are required on an outgoing transaction, this multiplies the protection to the point where a breach has not yet been observed historically.

In addition, it's recommended that greater training be required for all exchange operators, and that less funds be made accessible in one location.

Individual Prevention Policies

No specific policies for individual prevention have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as an individual, check our Prevention Policies for Individuals guide.

Platform Prevention Policies

Policies for platforms to take to prevent this situation have not yet been selected in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as a financial service, check our Prevention Policies for Platforms guide.

Regulatory Prevention Policies

No specific regulatory policies have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of regulatory policies that can prevent loss, check our Prevention Policies for Regulators guide.