Where is the world taking us?
While you were asleep last night, the biggest theft in history took place...
#The "Binance" platform is a Bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange with digital wallets and things like that. At 8 p.m., $6.3 billion was withdrawn from it in just half an hour—that's 4% of the company's total assets. Of course, everything went haywire and cryptocurrencies took a hit. The company sprang into action and managed to freeze $3 billion in transfers, but the other $3.3 billion was gone just like that.
How did this happen?
One of the company’s engineers probably accidentally opened a link on his laptop. It was likely a job posting on LinkedIn. Anyway, it was opened from there, the program was accessed from there, and the transfers began. By the time they stopped them, the money was gone. They started investigating and were told that the “Lazarus” group had done it. They’re from North Korea, and they took the money to fund their weapons program.
The story of how “Lazarus” began is strange...
In 2014, Sony made a satirical film called “The Interview” about two journalists who interview North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. At the time, North Korea demanded that the film be pulled from theaters. When that didn’t happen, the company was shocked to find that it had been hacked. Its devices were disabled, personal information about employees and executives was stolen, and emails from directors insulting actors were leaked. Most of the projects the company was working on were also leaked. It caused a huge uproar, and the company had to pull the film from cinemas and release it online. It turned out that “North Korea” itself was behind it—and that was the beginning.
Why is this a little scary?
A few days ago, a group hacked the smart refrigerators in big stores in France and set them to heat up, spoiling billions’ worth of goods. A few months ago, another group of refrigerators inside U.S. military bases was hacked, and the food inside went bad. The Pentagon said it was an attack. And, of course, you saw the thing with the highway sign yesterday. Add to that the guidance from 18 countries, led by Britain, telling their citizens to store enough food and water and stressing that they should keep a “radio” and a “battery”—to the point that sales of wind-up radios shot up, and people speculated it was because of a possible upcoming war.
What do you mean?
There’s a possibility—one rooted in conspiracy theories, and just my personal opinion, with a likelihood of no more than 1%—that all of this is preparation for a massive cyberattack that could hit the whole world in the future, and that everything happening now is a test run. They’re checking how ready the attack is, basically—a drill. Why not? Think about it. But anyway, regardless of anything else, cyber conflicts are what the new wars look like—newer even than drones themselves. Imagine the systems that are all connected, from smart refrigerators to launch platforms, maps, your bank account, and your personal photos. Can you imagine what could happen?
Thanks ✌️