Ronin Network Confirms Relaunch Date After $620M Hack

Ronin Network confirms the relaunch date after the recent $620 million hacks and also confirmed that Lazarus Group was behind the hack attack so let’s read more today in our latest cryptocurrency news.

Ronin Network confirms that it identified hackers related to the recent hack of $620 million and that all user funds are in the process of being restored. The entity imposed enhanced security measures to prevent such attacks in the near future. The project revealed that the cyber assault happened on March 23 and got identified a few days later by the sky Mavis team:

“We didn’t have a proper tracking system for monitoring large outflows from the bridge, which is why the breach wasn’t discovered immediately.”

The bad actors got control over five of the validator’s private keys and stole 173,600 ETH and 25.5 million worth of USDC. The criminals drained the crypto assets in two transactions when the total amount reached $620 million. Ronin Network disclosed that the hackers gained control by compromising a Sky Mavis employee who was fired shortly after. At the time of the hack, Sky Mavis controlled 4 out of the 9 validators which will not be enough to forge withdrawals while the key scheme is based on decentralization and restraints on the attack vector however the wrongdoers found a backdoor via the gas-free RPC node which they abused and got the signature for the Axie DAO Validator.

The company promised to join forces with top security experts like Polaris Infosec, and Crowdstrike and prevent such attacks from happening in the future. It also collaborated with other firms which should ensure hackers which are unable to breach the network’s defense. Sky Mavis increased the amount of validating nodes on the Ronin Network from 9 to 11 and in the next three months, the organization plans to push this number to 21 with a long-term goal of having over 100. The project wants stricter internal procedures and plans to launch other courses for the employees and prepare them to be ready if a similar case occurs again:

“Ronin is now the gold standard when it comes to security. All code is being fully reviewed and optimized, with security experts looking at the entire architecture.”

Ronin Network agreed with the FBI’s accusation that the cybercrime gang The Lazarus Group carried out the attack. The hackers were quite resourceful and sophisticated and involved in similar assaults on other occasions in addition, they thanked the US authorities for the provided help and the ID of the attackers. The Ronin network bridge aims to open by the end of April and will push the time frame until mid/late May while Binance will support the network for both wETH and USDC withdrawals and the deposits for the users:

“We initially expected to be able to deploy the upgrade by the end of April, but this is not a process that we can afford to rush. The bridge will secure billions of dollars in assets, and it needs to be done right. If all goes as planned, the bridge will reopen in mid/late May.”