Prisma Finance Says $11.6M Hacker Is ‘White Hat Rescue’
The hacker behind the $11.6 million exploit of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Prisma Finance is asking for a refund, according to chain messages he claims is a “white pick rescue.”
“Hey, this is Whitehat Rescue, who can I contact to get my money back,” the kidnapper said on March 28, 6 hours after the attack. The message was identified as coming from the “0x2d4…7507a” address – one of three addresses previously linked to the attack.
“Please contact us at negotiations@prismafinance.com,” Daffy's company responded two hours later.
A white hat hacker refers to someone who uses their hacking skills to find security vulnerabilities in software code. In the wider world of cyber security, these security professionals inform the creator of the attack vector rather than exploiting it themselves.
However, it is common in the cryptocurrency industry for hackers to exploit the protocol and then demand a white hat bounty in exchange for immunity, even though there have been instances where hackers have recovered their funds without asking for any reward.
The first malicious transactions took place at 11:29 am UTC on March 28. Prisma Finance is still investigating the root cause of the attack.
Blockchain security firm PeckShield had about $11.6 million stolen and sent to three different addresses.
The hacker then proceeded to convert the stolen funds into Ether (ETH), according to blockchain security firm Syvers.
Prisma Finance's engineers have launched the DeFi protocol.
Before the divestiture, Prisma Finance had about $220 million in total value locked into the protocol, but that figure has dropped to $115 million, according to Defilama.
Meanwhile, Prisma Governance Token (PRISMA) fell 30% to $0.244 on the news but has since recovered to $0.289, according to CoinGecko.
Cointelegraph reached out to Prisma Finance for comment and did not get an immediate response.
Related: Ethical hacker raises $5.4M for Curve Finance amid exploit
Cryptocurrency hacks continue to disrupt developments in the DeFi industry.
In the first two months of 2024, more than $200 million worth of cryptocurrencies disappeared in 32 incidents in the first two months of 2024, according to reports from hacking and carpet disappearances.
In the year By 2023, 1.8 billion dollars will be lost to cryptocurrency hackers and fraudsters, 17% of which will be attributed to the North Korean Lazar group, according to a December 28 report by Immunefi.
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