FTX’s $400M hack linked to SIM swap attack, feds charge 3
Crypto exchange FTX was hacked for over $400 million just hours after filing for bankruptcy in 2022. Many initially believed it was an inside job.
The $400 million hack of FTX in the hours after its bankruptcy has been linked to three people charged last month by United States prosecutors, alleging they conducted a series of SIM swap attacks that netted them cryptocurrency.
A Jan. 24 filing in a Washington, D.C. District Court U.S. federal prosecutors charged Robert Powell, Carter Rohn and Emily Hernandez with carrying out SIM swap attacks by stealing the identities of 50 victims and convincing telecom providers to port victims numbers to the trio’s phones.
A part of the filing details an attack on “Victim Company-1” — where on Nov. 11 and 12, 2022, Hernandez allegedly impersonated an employee at the company and Powell then gained access to their AT&T account, accessed company accounts and “transferred over $400 million in virtual currency” out of the crypto wallets.
...