Pro-Israeli pirates attack the greatest exchange of cryptography in Iran, destroying $ 90 million

A anti-Iranian hacking group With possible links with Israel, an attack on one of the biggest trade in Iran’s cryptocurrency, nearly $ 90 million and threatened to expose the source code of the platform on Wednesday.

A group known as the name Gonjeshke of a difficultOr “predatory sparrow,” said the attack, making it the group’s second operation in two days. On Tuesday, the group said it has destroyed data to the Iranian state bank in the midst of growing hostilities and missile attacks Between Israel and Iran.

Wednesday’s attack targeted Nobitex, one of Iran’s greatest cryptocurrency exchanges. The platform will help the Iranian government to avoid sanctions and finance illegal operations around the world, pirates said in a message published on its social networks on Wednesday.

The Nobitex website was not available on Wednesday. The messages sent to the company’s assistance channel on Telegram were not returned. Gonjeshke Darande did not respond to requests for comments.

Nobitex said in a Publish that he had removed his website and his offline application when he examined “unauthorized access” to his systems.

Gonjeshke Darande is a hacking group established with a history of sophisticated cyber attacks targeting Iran. An operation in 2021 claimed by the group caused widespread station-service failures, while a 2022 attack targeting an Iranian stereial caused a large fire and tangible offline damage.

Israel has never officially recognized that he is behind the group, although the Israeli media has largely pointed out Gonjeshke Darande as “linked to Israel”.

Wednesday’s attack began in the early hours of the morning when funds were moved to portfolios controlled by hackers denouncing the body of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), according to the blockchain analysis company, TRM Labs, which set the total flight at around 90 million dollars on several types of cryptocurrencies.

The way in which the portfolios controlled by pirates were created suggest that the hackers could not access the stolen money, which means that the pirates “have effectively burned the funds in order to send a political message to Nobitex,” said the Elliptical Blockchain Analysis Society in a blog.

The Elliptic position shared the proof that Nobitex had sent and received funds from the cryptocurrency portfolios controlled by groups hostile to Israel, in particular the Palestinian Islamic jihad, Hamas and the Yemen Houthis.

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Angus King had raised concerns about the role of Nobitex in the Iranian sanctions escape permit in a letter of May 2024 to senior officials from the Biden administration, citing Reuters reporting from 2022.

Andrew Fierman, head of national security intelligence with Channel Analysis, confirmed in an email in Reuters that the value of the attack was approximately $ 90 million and that it was most likely geopolitically motivated, since the money was burned.

Chainalysis “previously seen ransomware actors affiliated with the IRGC by taking advantage of Nobitex to withdraw the product, and other IRGC proxy groups taking advantage of the platform,” said Fierman.