Binance says fake job interviews and malicious code led to $6.3bn hack

Binance said Tuesday that a $6.3 billion hack of its exchange resulted from a "multi-stage campaign." The company says the campaign included a malicious software download and a fake job interview.

According to Binance, an engineer was contacted through a legitimate job-hunting platform. The engineer was invited to bogus interviews with fake company representatives, the BBC reports.

The Verge, citing a company postmortem, reports that the attack played out over a few months. It says the process started in June when one developer downloaded a tampered installer. The Verge says it then apparently spread through a malicious Google ad. CNBC and The Verge headlines say hackers also used an internal AI tool. The excerpts provided do not explain how.

CNBC reports that Binance has replenished 98% of the $6.34 billion in affected assets, citing a security report the exchange issued Tuesday. CNBC identifies co-CEO Richard Teng as the source of the fake-interview and AI-tool account.

The Hill reports that both the FBI and outside analysts have linked the hackers to North Korea. The Hill says they moved billions of dollars of crypto out of Binance wallets.