Hacker Jailed for Robbing Vietnamese Crypto Exchange – Exchanges

Authorities in Vietnam have caught and convicted a hacker who stole money and data from a local cryptocurrency exchange. The man who was arrested and charged with extorting the trading platform's owner has been ordered to return the money he embezzled.

Vietnamese Court Convicts Hackers of Attacking Crypto Exchange Website

A resident of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam was sentenced to 10 years in prison for stealing 300 million Vietnamese dong (nearly $13,000) from a crypto entrepreneur whose coin trading site he was exposed to cyberattacks.

Hacker Nham Hoang Khang was charged with extortion and sentenced by the city's people's court on Friday, the English-language edition of the daily VN Express reported. He was also ordered to return the stolen money.

The crypto exchange was founded in 2018 by Vu Ngoc Chau to connect potential buyers and sellers of cryptocurrencies and charge a fee for the transactions it facilitates. Users were required to open accounts and provide personal information such as phone number, email address and a copy of an identification document.

In October 2020, Khang used his phone to create multiple accounts on the platform. He discovered that the T-rex.exchange website had several vulnerabilities that could be exploited to obtain both data and digital currencies.

The following month, the hacker managed to gain control of a T-Rex employee's account and around 30,000 USDT. The team discovered the unusual transactions and blocked the account to prevent further operations with the cryptocurrency.

When he realized he no longer had access to the compromised account, Khang obtained the personal information of 29,000 customers and created a large number of fake orders while threatening further attacks.

He also demanded a payment of $20,000 or else he would reveal that the exchange had been hacked. Chau, the owner, received several threats and eventually asked his employees to send Khang 300 million dong. He filed a complaint with law enforcement in mid-2021.

In Vietnam, Cryptocurrencies are not yet legalized or regulated. Despite their popularity among traders and investors, Bitcoin and the like are not recognized as assets or means of payment by the State Bank of Vietnam and Vietnamese law.

What do you think about the outcome of the hacked Vietnamese crypto exchange case? Share them in the comments section below.

Lubomir Tassew

Lubomir Tassev is a journalist from tech-savvy Eastern Europe who likes Hitchens' quote: "Being a writer is what I am, not what I do." In addition to crypto, blockchain and fintech, international politics and economics are two other sources of inspiration.

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