Binance probes suspicious crypto transfers worth up to $5.8 billion as Tether and Circle freeze $1.79 billion in stablecoins linked to the activity. Binance is investigating a potential security incident after billions of dollars in cryptocurrency moved from wallets linked to the exchange on October 29. The transfers raised concerns about a possible hack, while Tether and Circle moved to freeze stablecoins linked to the suspicious activity. The full scope of the incident remains unclear, and the reported outflows shouldn’t automatically be treated as confirmed losses. According to The Block, blockchain analyst Spreek identified approximately $3.55 billion in incoming transfers to an initially unidentified wallet. “Onchain data flagged by analyst Spreek shows about $3.55 billion in incoming transfers to the unlabeled wallet, with nearly $900 million subsequently moved across other wallets.” The Block reports. “Conor Grogan, a senior director and product leader at Coinbase, says the amount is up to $5.8 billion.” Coinbase executive Conor Grogan estimated that the total value of the movements could reach $5.8 billion. I think the number is potentially up to $5.8B. Tether has blacklisted a large portion of this. https://t.co/ANz2DiXc8S pic.twitter.com/BfscU7ENSo — Conor (@jconorgrogan) October 29, 2026 These figures come from blockchain tracking and different estimates, so they don’t necessarily represent the amount stolen. BREAKING: The Binance hack has grown to about $5.6B drained across Ethereum, Bitcoin and Tron, on-chain trackers say. If confirmed, it would be the biggest crypto heist on record. Tether and Circle have frozen about $1.8B in stablecoins, and Circle says it acted "in… https://t.co/UzgOxw9jLE pic.twitter.com/9fBEaaZrWj — International Cyber Digest (@IntCyberDigest) October 29, 2026 Binance acknowledged the reports and said its security team was investigating. The company had not publicly confirmed a breach in the initial reports, making it important to distinguish between suspicious transactions and a verified compromise. “We are aware of reports of a potential security issue and we are actively investigating.” He wrote in a post on X. “Our security teams are reviewing all relevant information with urgency, and we will provide updates through official Binance channels as soon as we have verified information. Users should remain cautious of scams and should not trust unofficial links, messages, or requests for account information.” We are aware of reports of a potential security issue and we are actively investigating. Our security teams are reviewing all relevant information with urgency, and we will provide updates through official Binance channels as soon as we have verified information. Users should… — Yi He (@heyibinance) October 29, 2026 This statement, reported by The Block, reflects the company’s position at the time. Binance also urged users to be cautious of unofficial messages and links, a relevant warning whenever a major security incident attracts public attention. Blockchain records showed large transfers from Binance-linked hot wallets to a wallet that wasn’t previously identified as belonging to the exchange. Hot wallets hold cryptocurrency in systems connected to the internet, allowing exchanges to process withdrawals and other transactions quickly. Their online availability also makes their security controls particularly important. The transfers involved Ethereum, stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies. Some funds were later moved to additional wallets, making it harder to track all the transactions. Investigators must determine who initiated the transfers, whether they were authorized and whether an attacker gained control of the wallets. They also need to establish whether the funds belonged to customers or Binance itself. Large transfers alone don’t prove a hack. However, unusual movements involving large amounts of cryptocurrency require immediate investigation. One of the most significant developments was the response from the companies behind two major stablecoins, USDT and USDC. According to The Block and Forbes, Tether and Circle froze approximately $1.79 billion in stablecoins associated with the suspicious transfers in the initial reports. The figures subsequently changed as the investigation developed. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino later said the company had frozen more than $1.567 billion in USDT linked to a potential Binance exchange hack. These amounts reflect reported actions at different points in time and shouldn’t be combined without checking whether they refer to distinct assets and addresses. Tether froze more than 1.567B USDT related to a potential Binance exchange hack. Protecting the industry and our partners is our main priority. Stay safe everyone. — Paolo Ardoino (@paoloardoino) October 29, 2026 The freezes demonstrate an important feature of centralized stablecoins: their issuers can restrict transfers from addresses they control through their token contracts. This can help contain suspected theft, but it doesn’t provide the same control over assets such as Ether or Bitcoin. Nor does freezing a balance guarantee that every transferred asset can be recovered. The incident also highlights a practical tension in crypto security. Stablecoins offer the convenience of blockchain transfers, but their centralized issuers retain powers that can make a difference during an investigation. Binance maintained that customer funds were safe, while co-founder Changpeng Zhao, widely known as CZ, said the activity appeared to be a hack. Zhao no longer manages Binance’s platform, but said he expected customers’ funds to be fully covered. The company said its user funds were “completely safe.” “Our teams are aware of reports of a potential security issue and are actively investigating. User funds are completely safe. Our security teams are reviewing all relevant information with urgency, and we will provide updates through official Binance channels as soon as we have verified information.” the company states. “Users should remain cautious of scams and should not trust unofficial links, messages, or requests for account information.” That assurance is important, but it doesn’t replace a technical explanation of how the transfers occurred or independent confirmation of the final impact. A security investigation must establish more than whether an exchange can cover a potential loss. It should determine how the activity was authorized, whether credentials or signing mechanisms were compromised, which systems were involved and whether the attacker retained any access. For customers, the immediate priority is to avoid becoming a secondary victim. Attackers often exploit uncertainty around a major incident to distribute fake announcements, impersonate support staff and direct users to fraudulent websites. Users should rely on official Binance communication channels, avoid unexpected links and never disclose passwords, authentication codes or wallet recovery phrases in response to unsolicited messages. Security teams should also watch for phishing emails that use the incident to demand urgent account verification. Attackers may exploit the situation to launch a separate scam. The key lesson is that blockchain transparency does not guarantee operational security. Public ledgers show transactions, but they don’t reveal who authorized them, how attackers may have gained access or whether an exchange’s internal security controls failed. As the investigation continues, it’s important to distinguish between reported transfers, confirmed theft and funds that can be recovered. The figures may change as analysts trace more wallets and stablecoin issuers take further action. Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon Pierluigi Paganini (SecurityAffairs – hacking, Binance)
Japan Airlines (JAL) has announced that a data breach at Amadeus’s Passenger Service System exposed the data of about 92,000 customers. JAL Group, which operates the airlines JAL and Japan Transocean Air, uses the system to handle passenger reservations, ticketing, and check-in. According to its announcement, Amadeus notified the airline on October 23, 2026, that unauthorized access to its systems occurred between August 10, 2023, and September 23, 2026. As a result of this lengthy breach, the threat actor accessed reservation codes (PNRs), names, flight dates, routes, and travel classes for approximately 90,000 customers. An additional 2,000 customers had the above data types exposed, plus their email addresses, phone numbers, passport numbers, nationalities, frequent flyer numbers, and flight, ticket, and seat numbers.
The Pentagon treats August freezer failures at US military bases as a suspected hack and is working with French investigators after a supermarket attack. The Pentagon is investigating freezer failures that spoiled food at US military bases in August as a suspected cyberattack, according to four officials who spoke to Reuters. One official said US investigators are also in contact with French authorities about a similar attack on commercial freezers that disrupted supermarkets in France earlier this month. This is the first time Reuters has reported that the US incident is being treated as a suspected cyberattack. “The Pentagon is treating the spate of mysterious freezer malfunctions that spoiled food at military bases across the United States in August as a suspected hack, according to four officials familiar with the matter.” Reuters reports. “One of the officials said the military investigators were in touch with their French counterparts about a similar cyberattack on commercial freezers that disrupted supermarkets there earlier this month.” It is still unclear who is behind the attacks. Reuters could not determine how far the investigation has progressed or whether investigators have identified the cause or those responsible. The Pentagon said a unit of US Cyber Command is working closely with other government agencies and law enforcement. The Army’s Criminal Investigation Division confirmed that its Cyber Field Office is involved and is working with French law enforcement to investigate the freezer outages in Europe. The incidents hit commissaries, the on-base stores where military personnel buy food. At least six were affected in late August, according to Reuters’ review of the bases’ Facebook posts and website updates. Stars and Stripes named Fort Irwin, F.E. Warren, Naval Station Newport, Columbus and Travis among the confirmed stores, and some outlets count up to 14 sites in 11 states, though not all are confirmed. Source: Signal and Silence Blog Source: Signal and Silence Blog In at least one case the freezers didn’t just stop. Their temperatures were cranked up overnight, which left mounds of wilted or melted food in the morning. Fort Huachuca in Arizona said on August 26 that its freezer went into defrost mode and heated up all the food, adding that trust us when we say it was spoiled. The Pentagon wasn’t the first to speak. A recently created blog called Signal and Silence reported the freezer failures and the possibility of sabotage on August 28, while Stars and Stripes reported the involvement of military investigators and Britain’s Daily Telegraph reported the contacts with the French. The French Embassy in Washington had no comment. Frozen food is the one asset where damage takes hours and evidence takes the form of puddles. The French attack is the clearest example. Hackers took control of the cooling units in more than 350 stores and raised the temperatures. Frozen food aisles were emptied, and some units got so hot they caught fire. One supermarket owner said the total cost could reach tens of millions of euros. The same thing happened in Arizona: attackers made the units hotter instead of just turning them off. Reuters could not tell which brand was used at the US bases, and Danfoss, which is the manufacturer targeted in French supermarket attacks, did not reply. A public research report on Danfoss controllers came out before the incidents, but nothing shows a link to the bases. There is a history of attacks on refrigeration systems. Danfoss reports that hackers targeted supermarkets in Russia and Israel in 2022 by exploiting outdated cooling controllers. In December 2025, US prosecutors accused a Ukrainian woman of belonging to a hacking group that disrupted refrigeration at a meat plant in 2024, ruining more than 2,000 pounds of meat. Earlier this year, the Global Food Safety Initiative urged food safety experts and IT leaders to work together to protect refrigeration systems. Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon Pierluigi Paganini (SecurityAffairs – hacking, Military Base Freezer)
Prediction market platform Polymarket temporarily suspended trading on Thursday after hackers compromised a third-party service to distribute cryptocurrency-draining JavaScript, with approximately $2.5 million in assets traced to a suspected attacker wallet.
Some attacks take real skill. Others just need someone to leave a door open. This week has both. Exposed passwords, old bugs still getting exploited, and trusted software doing things it shouldn't. There's a strange mix of clever tricks and careless mistakes. Hackers are borrowing trust from familiar apps, websites, and AI tools. Some are using AI to speed things up. Others are leaving their
A massive search-hijacking campaign involving 319 Chrome extensions with a combined 13.4 million reported installations redirected users' searches through tracking servers to generate advertising revenue from Bing and Yahoo. A new report by Socket's John Tuckner expands on the researcher's April 2025 discovery of 57 Chrome extensions with 6 million users, adding 264 newly identified add-ons with another 8.7 million users. "These extensions were created by a handful of organized operators all working from the same idea: quietly take over the browser's default search engine, route every query through a suspicious proxy server, and collect partner referral payments from Yahoo or Bing under a syndication partner ID," explained Tuckner. The extensions, with the full list shared at the bottom of Socket's report, pretend to be PDF converters, manual finders, safe search, and AI search tools. However, for the most part, the extensions simply redirect users' searches through a series of sites until they land on Bing or Yahoo.
AI agents can control authenticated browsers, interact with corporate applications, and access sensitive data while appearing to act as legitimate employees. Keep Aware examines three ways agents operate inside browsers and why traditional security tools may struggle to distinguish their activity from human users.
Cisco released security updates to patch a denial-of-service zero-day in Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Threat Defense (FTD) software that attackers are exploiting to remotely crash vulnerable firewall devices. Tracked as CVE-2026-76418, this high-severity vulnerability affects devices running ASA and FTD software with configurations containing the 'webvpn' keyword and SSL VPN enabled on at least one interface. Successful exploitation allows unauthenticated, remote attackers to trigger a denial-of-service (DoS) condition, causing the device to reload unexpectedly. Cisco advised customers to patch vulnerable firewalls after its Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) discovered evidence that the flaw was being exploited in the wild earlier this month. However, the company didn't provide indicators of compromise and hasn't shared additional information about the attacks, including which organizations are being targeted or who is exploiting the flaw.
Cisco has released patches to address a high-severity security flaw in Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software that it said has been exploited in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-76418, is rated 8.6 on the CVSS scoring system. Successful exploitation could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause the
Volt Typhoon used disposable relay chains to hide zero-day attacks on critical systems. Lumen linked Silent Train to at least four zero-days. Lumen’s Black Lotus Labs has spent three years tracking a covert network it calls Silent Train, which it ties to Volt Typhoon, the China-linked APT group. The cybersecurity firm says the network hid exploitation of software flaws the vendors didn’t know about yet. Black Lotus sent hundreds of victim notifications along the way, and the investigations that followed revealed the exploitation of at least four confirmed zero-days and one likely. “Volt Typhoon’s Silent Train is a covert network designed to gain and maintain access to the technologies businesses rely on to manage devices, networks and critical operations.” reads the report published by Lumen. “Black Lotus Labs® tracked how the group used rapidly changing chains of compromised infrastructure to conceal its activity while exploiting previously unknown vulnerabilities in centralized management platforms.” Silent Train first showed up in November 2023, shortly before the first takedown of the KV-botnet, Volt Typhoon’s earlier network of hijacked routers. Activity rose after the second disruption. The group dropped persistent infrastructure and moved to disposable chains of compromised devices that it could rebuild whenever it wanted. Each session began on a rented server outside the United States. It then passed through another server and compromised small-office routers, home devices and IoT equipment in other countries. Finally, the traffic passed through a compromised device in the U.S., close to the target. This helped the attackers make their activity look like normal local traffic and bypass location-based blocks and IP reputation filters. On average, the chains passed through about four devices before reaching a U.S. IP address. Some used as many as six. Lumen identified more than 27 types of devices used in the network, including TP-Link routers and Fortinet appliances. Some of these devices had no known vulnerabilities, suggesting that Volt Typhoon may have used previously unknown exploits to compromise them and create relay points. “We observed more than 27 device classes exploited and used in Silent Train operations, ranging from SOHO and IoT devices like TP-Link routers and Netgear Orbi devices to enterprise platforms like Fortinet appliances and CyberPanel servers.” the report continues. “Some relay device types lack known vulnerabilities, suggesting Volt Typhoon leveraged undisclosed zero-day exploits to set up a single relay in a four-to-six hop chain and indicating a willingness to commit significant resources to protecting future access capabilities.” The attackers exploited exposed web interfaces and installed only the tools needed to connect the devices through SSH. These included temporary SSH services, keys, configuration files and tools already available on the systems. At the end of each session, they removed all traces of their activity and dismantled the relay chain. Sessions lasted about four hours on average, although some lasted only minutes. The attackers could also build a new chain in less than two minutes, suggesting that they had partly automated the process. The group worked with strict discipline. New device types arrived about one per quarter, and about one per month during the 2023 and 2024 build-out, always tested outside the U.S. first. Roles never changed: Intelbras modems served only as overseas relays, Netgear Orbi devices only as the U.S. hops facing victims, and the server providers stayed separated by layer too. By early 2025, enterprise platforms like Fortinet, Cisco, PRTG, Mirth Connect and CyberPanel joined as final hops. They stayed up one to three months and supported several intrusions. The group also added reverse tunnels using the open-source proxies Chisel and FRP, and the old and new methods ran in parallel. Volt Typhoon used Silent Train only during key stages of its attacks, including exploiting vulnerabilities, stealing credentials and data, and maintaining access to compromised systems. Each session targeted between one and five victims, often just one organization. The activity was carried out by human operators, mainly from Monday to Friday, between 9 a.m. and 10 p.m. China Standard Time. The group also paused operations for several weeks around Chinese New Year. The group targeted tools used to manage endpoints and networks, as well as SD-WAN systems and other control platforms. These systems can manage hundreds or thousands of devices, allowing attackers to reach many systems without moving through the network in the usual way. This approach also helped them leave fewer traces. After the attacks, investigators found webshells running in memory, stolen credentials, misuse of built-in features such as remote file transfers, and deleted logs. The four confirmed zero-day campaigns hit Versa Director in 2024, N-able N-central through CVE-2025-8875 and CVE-2025-8876, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN through CVE-2026-20127, and VeloCloud Orchestrator through CVE-2026-16812. The Cisco bug is a CVSS 10.0 flaw, and the group kept exploiting it well after Cisco disclosed it in February 2026. In the Versa case, the group used an in-memory JAR webshell to limit forensic evidence and reach downstream customers. The likely fifth is Quest KACE. The campaign hit more than 30 victims and faded after Quest’s October 2025 security updates. “The campaign affected more than 30 victims, followed vendor remediation timelines and declined after Quest’s October 2025 security updates.” the report states. “Despite limited forensic evidence, the available data supports a moderate-confidence assessment that Volt Typhoon exploited a zero-day vulnerability.” The actor stayed on the KACE server and used its admin features to take credentials. Victims include telecoms, government agencies, defense contractors, satellite and emergency communications, universities with ROTC programs, managed service and IT firms, and critical infrastructure such as water, energy, transportation, maritime, rail and aviation. What they share is access to bigger networks or customers. Hawaii, California and Texas were the top locations for several years. Lumen can’t say why, but the pattern fits pre-positioning for a crisis in the Indo-Pacific. “For enterprise leaders, the lesson is clear: systems with broad administrative reach can become high-value gateways to the entire organization and its customers. Reducing internet exposure, accelerating patching, strengthening access controls and preserving security telemetry are essential to detecting threats earlier and limiting their impact.” Lumen concludes. Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon Pierluigi Paganini (SecurityAffairs – hacking, China)
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