Two suspects have been indicted by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of California in connection with the hacking of cryptocurrency exchange EtherDelta in December 2017.
EtherDelta Hack Indictment
According to the indictment, the suspects Elliot Gunton and Anthony Tyler Nashatka allegedly modified the EtherDelta domain name setting to defraud users of the exchange.
The defendants were able to access and alter the system, which was registered to an account with Cloudflare, to obtain client “cryptocurrency addresses and private keys,” in addition to withdrawing funds from the associated accounts.
The filing continues, claiming that Gunton and Nashatka were able to obtain the cell phone number of an EtherDelta employee through an elaborate scheme involving the cellphone service provider. The two suspects were then able to use the name to access to the employee’s email address, thereby allowing entry into the “web infrastructure and website security accounts”.
From there the defendants diverted traffic from EtherDelta to a fraudulent website resembling the exchange and were able to obtain pertinent user information, including private keys, to defraud clients of their funds.
The indictment claims that Gunton and Nashatka stole from hundreds of EtherDelta users, with one particular client losing more than $800,000 in the theft.
Featured Image Credit: Photo via Pixabay.com
