Rahul Agarwal , a Bangalore-based software engineer and employee of well-known cryptocurrency exchange platform CoinDCX , has been arrested in connection with a massive theft of $44 million (approximately Rs. 379 crore).
See also: CoinDCX breach leads to $44.2 million theft
The CEN Crime Branch police in Whitefield arrested Agarwal on July 26, following an extensive investigation into the serious security breach that hit the company's digital asset infrastructure.
The arrested person, a resident of Carmelaram area and originally from Haridwar in Uttarakhand, worked for Neblio Technologies, which runs the CoinDCX platform. According to police sources, the sophisticated cyber attack took place on July 19 when hackers managed to penetrate the secure systems through compromised login credentials belonging to Agarwal's company laptop. Investigation revealed that the perpetrators used sophisticated social engineering techniques to bypass CoinDCX's security protocols.
Agarwal reportedly received a WhatsApp message from a German number, which contained malicious files disguised as legitimate work documents.
See also: Hackers stole $27 million worth of crypto from BigONE
One of these files contained malware, designed to collect identification credentials and establish unauthorized access to the company's cryptocurrency management systems.
The attack method demonstrated a high level of knowledge of blockchain infrastructure and digital asset transfer protocols.
According to The Times of India, at around 2:37 a.m. on July 19, the hackers initiated the breach by transferring 1 USDT (Tether) token, in order to test wallet connectivity and confirm their access to the platform’s “hot wallet” infrastructure.
Then, at 9:40 a.m., the perpetrators proceeded with the main phase of the theft, removing $44 million worth of digital assets and distributing them across six different cryptocurrency wallets, aiming to make the transactions difficult to trace.
See also: Malicious extension for Cursor AI IDE allowed crypto theft
The case highlights serious weaknesses in the security infrastructure of cryptocurrency exchange platforms and underscores the importance of rigorous staff evaluation, implementation of multi-factor authentication, and comprehensive cybersecurity training to protect digital assets from sophisticated social engineering attacks.
Source: cybersecuritynews
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