The U.S. government raised charges against a Computer Security Engineer that managed to exploit vulnerability and steal around $9 million in Ethereum cryptocurrency. This “ethical hacker” seems to be a former employee of Amazon (source: Linkedin).
The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York issued an indictment on Tuesday against Shakeeb A., aged 34. He is described as a “senior security engineer” employed by an international technology company. His expertise includes reverse engineering smart contracts and conducting blockchain audits, which were among the specialized skills he utilized to execute the attack.
According to reports, Shakeeb A. eventually returned approximately $8 million worth of cryptocurrency and retained the remainder. In their official statement, DOJ prosecutors revealed that Shakeeb engaged in communications with the Crypto Exchange. He offered to return all the pilfered funds, except for $1.5 million, on the condition that the Crypto Exchange refrained from reporting the attack to law enforcement.
“In a failed attempt to pilfer millions of dollars, Shakeeb leveraged his computer security engineering abilities. Despite his alleged efforts to conceal the funds, the IRS Criminal Investigation’s Cyber Crimes Unit proved to be more than capable of countering his tactics,” stated Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher, representing IRC-CI, the criminal investigation division of the IRS, as mentioned in a press release released by U.S. Attorney’s Office.