Israel-linked group hacks Iranian cryptocurrency exchange in $90m heist

[groundloop]

Source: The Guardian

An Israel-linked hacking group has claimed responsibility for a $90m (£67m) heist on an Iranian cryptocurrency exchange.

The group known as Gonjeshke Darande, Farsi for Predatory Sparrow, said on Wednesday it had hacked the Nobitex exchange, a day after claiming it had destroyed data at Iran’s state-owned Bank Sepah.

Elliptic, a consultancy specialising in crypto-related crime, said it had so far identified more than $90m in cryptocurrency sent from Nobitex crypto wallets to hacker addresses.

The hackers appear to have in effect “burned” those funds, rendering them inaccessible by storing them in “vanity addresses” for which they do not have the cryptographic keys, Elliptic said.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jun/18/israel-linked-group-hacks-iranian-cryptocurrency-exchange-in-90m-heist

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Now if they could hack the North Koreans.

[ck4829]

4. Now if they could hack United Healthcare and medical debt collectors

[bamagal62]

2. And, there in lies the problem

With cryptocurrency. Hackers.

[ret5hd]

3. can someone explain these "vanity addresses"

thing to me?

so…if there is a way to store crypto that can’t be gotten into, why doesn’t everyone store their crypto that way?

i understand that the way the article reads that NO ONE has the “key” to get into the “vanity address”…but if someone did have the key they could get it…right?

so why wouldn’t someone store their crypto in a “vanity address” that only THEY had the “key” to?

there’s so much about this crypto-crap i just don’t feel i’m grasping. it seems as if i am becoming my aged parents and a younger me is trying to explain how GMAIL works.

[Tarc]

9. A rough and simplistic analogy

Pretend you have a document saved on your computer that can be password-protected. Open the box to set a password, randomly slap keys on the keyboard for a few seconds so you have 50-60 random characters.

Control-c (copies) the big password.

Control-v (pastes) into the "retype password to confirm" box.

Close it, and you'll never (by ordinary means) get into that document again.

[ret5hd]

11. that explains the "key" to the address...

but not the address itself.

i guess my question boils down to:

here is this magical address …a vanity address…that no one can get into without the secret key.

and over there is a regular address that is supposed to be secure, but we regularly hear of hundreds of millions of dollars of crypto disappearing into the hacker-world, never to be recovered.

so why would anyone use the regular address and NOT a “vanity address”?

and what is the difference between the two?

[bucolic_frolic]

5. Anyplace there's a hubbub-commotion going on, somebody's stealing something.

Diversion is the name of the game.

[Deep State Witch]

6. Maybe they should Hack Taco's Memecoin?

THen again, there isn't much money available there.

[Prairie Gates]

7. "The hackers appear to have in effect "burned" those funds, ...

"...rendering them inaccessible by storing them in 'vanity addresses' for which they do not have the cryptographic keys, Elliptic said."



Tell me another one. I was born at night, guy, but not last night.