Police seized 5.6 million dollars. But when they wanted to boast about it, they accidentally published the password. Shortly after, a large part of the seized money is gone.
South Korean police wanted to boast about how they seized 5.6 million US dollars. But in doing so, they accidentally published the password to the crypto wallet. Shortly after, most of the money is gone and the police have to apologize for the mistake. This was reported by the English-language magazine ArsTechnica.
Police accidentally publish password to crypto wallet
What exactly happened? The South Korean police are said to have seized cryptocurrencies worth 5.6 million dollars from 124 wealthy tax evaders. The authority wanted to boast about these results to the public and published a press release presenting this find.
The authority’s mistake: A handwritten note was clearly visible in a screenshot in the press release. And this note contained a complete mnemonic recovery phrase that anyone can use as a master key to move assets from the cold wallet to a new wallet without additional PIN or permissions.
And that’s exactly what the unknown thieves likely used: Shortly after, 4 billion US dollars were already missing.
How did the matter proceed? Days later, the police published a new press release where they humbly admitted: They regret the mistake and apologize “deeply” for the erroneous publication.
They also acknowledged that there is no excuse for this mistake and confirmed that they would initiate an investigation together with the national police to track the transfer back and recover the lost funds.
In another case, a captain allowed a PC to be built for mining cryptocurrencies. He has now been convicted for his involvement in the operation. You can read more about this on MeinMMO: Army captain allowed a PC to be installed for mining crypto at a military base, is now convicted
