CoinStats CEO says hackers stole $2m by attacking its AWS infrastructure

CoinStats chief executive Narek Gevorgyan shared new details behind the hacker attack, that drained $2 million worth of tokens from nearly 1,600 hosted wallets.

CoinStats, a crypto portfolio manager backed by 6th Man Ventures and Hack VC, lost more than $2 million worth of tokens due to a hacker attack on its Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure, the project’s chief executive Narek Gevorgyan said in a Jun. 26 post on X.

What a week it’s been.

I’ve been working diligently on CoinStats for the last 6 years. We’ve experienced many highs and lows, but I believe we’ve created the best portfolio tracker on the market.

Our AWS infrastructure was hacked, with strong evidence suggesting it was done…

— narek (@narek_gevorgyan) June 26, 2024

Gevorgyan disclosed that hackers — allegedly with ties to North Korea — executed the breach through one of CoinStats’ employees “who was socially engineered into downloading malicious software onto his work computer.”

“I empathize with those who lost money; I’m sure their situation is just as difficult. CoinStats will definitely support the victims of the hack, and we’ve been discussing options internally.”

Narek Gevorgyan

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The CEO assured users that the breach affected “no more than 1% of all our users,” after previously disclosing that approximately 1,590 wallets were compromised. Gevorgyan mentioned that CoinStats awaits final details from law enforcement before providing a comprehensive post-mortem of the incident.

As crypto.news reported earlier, the hackers sent out fraudulent notifications to CoinStats’ iOS and Android users, falsely promising rewards and prompting them to access the CoinStats AirScout wallet. However, clicking on the link, users were redirected to a drainer website, promoted through a push notification from CoinStats and an official in-app alert on the home screen.

Founded in 2017, CoinStats raised over $3 million from Hack VC, with participation from other investors such as Mike Duda’s 6th Man Ventures among others.

Read more: North Korea used $3 billion of stolen crypto to develop weapons of mass destruction, report says

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