The breach isn’t the problem. The spread is. →The breach isn’t the problem. The spread is. →Measure in 5 min. Free AssessmentFree Assessment
Investment Banking/Venture
Breach intelligence, attack campaigns, and threat reports targeting the Investment Banking/Venture sector.
Explore Other Sectors
Investment Banking/Venture Threat Reports
Unleash Protocol Breach: $3.9M Stolen in 2024 DeFi Multisig Contract Hijack
In May 2024, decentralized intellectual property platform Unleash Protocol suffered a major security breach in which hackers exploited a vulnerability within its multisignature governance contract. Threat actors successfully assumed control of the protocol’s multisig wallet to execute an unauthorized smart contract upgrade, granting them illicit withdrawal rights. As a result, approximately $3.9 million in cryptocurrency assets were drained from the platform. The incident forced Unleash Protocol to suspend operations to assess damage control, freezing its ecosystem and raising questions about the security of decentralized financial infrastructure. This breach highlights the persistent risks facing DeFi platforms, particularly surrounding contract governance and multisig controls. Threat actors continue to target decentralized protocols using sophisticated social engineering and smart contract exploitation methods, emphasizing fintech’s urgent need for comprehensive, proactive security measures.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
SEC Uncovers $14M Crypto Scam Using Fake AI-Themed Investment Clubs
In late 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged a network of fraudulent crypto trading platforms and investment clubs for orchestrating a $14 million scam targeting retail investors. The scammers operated platforms such as Morocoin Tech Corp., Berge Blockchain Technology Co., Ltd., and Cirkor Inc., as well as front groups like AI Wealth Inc. and others, leveraging social media ads and WhatsApp messages promising AI-driven trading tips. Victims were enticed to buy into phony 'Security Token Offerings' with guarantees of high returns, only to be tricked a second time by advance withdrawal fees before all funds were siphoned to overseas accounts, predominantly in Asia. This incident underscores the urgent risk of AI-wash fraud and the exploitation of digital messaging channels to build investor trust. As cryptocurrency scams grow more sophisticated and regulatory scrutiny intensifies, organizations and individuals should exercise heightened vigilance against elaborate schemes blending false credentials, social engineering, and AI-themed deception.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
Trust Wallet Chrome Extension Supply Chain Attack Results in $7 Million Crypto Theft
In December 2023, Trust Wallet, a prominent cryptocurrency wallet provider, suffered a supply chain attack via its Chrome extension. Attackers compromised the extension update process on December 24, distributing malicious code to unsuspecting users. As a result, users who installed the tainted update had their crypto wallets drained, collectively losing over $7 million worth of digital assets. The attack leveraged phishing domains to trick users and highlighted gaps in software supply chain security. Trust Wallet responded swiftly with advisories and efforts to contain further compromise while warning all extension users. This breach underscores the escalating threat and sophistication of supply chain attacks targeting digital assets, echoing a sharp rise in attacks exploiting third-party software update channels. Organizations must prioritize controls around extension security, continuous monitoring, and response plans to mitigate similar high-impact incidents.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
Trust Wallet Chrome Extension Breach: $7M in Crypto Lost to Supply Chain Attack
In December 2025, Trust Wallet suffered a major supply chain attack when a malicious version (2.68) of its Chrome browser extension was published via a compromised Chrome Web Store API key. The attacker embedded backdoored code that exfiltrated users’ decrypted mnemonic phrases to an external server, allowing theft of approximately $7 million in cryptocurrencies. Over 2,500 wallet addresses were impacted, with stolen funds laundered through centralized exchanges and cross-chain bridges. Trust Wallet responded by urging users to upgrade to a safe version, launching a reimbursement program, and enhancing release procedures. This breach highlights the growing risks of supply chain attacks targeting widely-used browser extensions, especially in the cryptocurrency sector. With attackers demonstrating sophistication by bypassing official release processes and leveraging trusted analytics tools for data exfiltration, organizations face mounting pressure to secure development and release pipelines against insider threats and credential misuse.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
LastPass 2022 Breach Fuels Years-Long Cryptocurrency Heists by Russian Actors
In 2022, LastPass suffered a significant data breach that enabled attackers to steal encrypted password vaults, exposing sensitive customer credentials, including cryptocurrency wallet keys and seed phrases. According to research by TRM Labs, Russian cybercriminals exploited weak master passwords over subsequent years, decrypting vaults offline and siphoning more than $35 million in digital assets as recently as late 2025. Stolen funds were laundered using advanced cryptocurrency mixing and routed through sanctioned Russian exchanges. The incident underscores a persistent threat model: stolen encrypted data can remain exploitable for years if password hygiene and vault security are neglected. The breach’s fallout continues to evolve, heightening urgency for organizations to reassess encryption, password management, and layered defense strategies.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
Nomani Scam Exposes AI Deepfake Threats to Social Media in 2025
In 2025, the Nomani investment scam surged by 62%, leveraging sophisticated AI-based deepfake advertisements across major social media platforms including Facebook and YouTube. The scheme utilized convincing fake endorsements and manipulated video content to lure unsuspecting individuals into fraudulent investment schemes. Security firm ESET recorded over 64,000 unique URLs distributing the fraudulent campaign, indicating an expansion both in scale and reach. The attackers exploited trust in familiar faces, rapidly spreading the scam and leading to substantial financial losses and reputational risks for victims and targeted brands. This incident highlights the growing threat of AI-enabled social engineering, with deepfakes enabling unprecedented scale and believability. As identity manipulation technologies proliferate, organizations and regulators face increased pressure to combat fraud, educate users, and adapt security controls to counter the evolving landscape of digital deception.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
North Korea’s $2 Billion Crypto Heist: 2025’s Largest Nation-State Cyber Attack
In 2025, threat actors closely tied to North Korea orchestrated a record-breaking $2.02 billion in cryptocurrency thefts, representing over half of the global digital asset losses for the year. These attackers leveraged sophisticated intrusion techniques, advanced persistent threat (APT) operations, and exploited vulnerabilities in decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms and exchanges from January through early December. High-value thefts were often facilitated by exploiting weak internal controls, compromised credentials, and security gaps in cross-chain bridges, resulting in severe financial losses for both exchanges and their clients. This incident marks a significant escalation in nation-state cybercrime and highlights evolving attacker sophistication in targeting cryptocurrency infrastructure. It underscores escalating regulatory scrutiny and the necessity for organizations to bolster east-west traffic controls, threat detection, and zero trust architectures in response to persistent, financially-motivated adversaries.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
Illusory Systems 2022 Crypto Breach: Smart Contract Flaw Leads to FTC Settlement
In July 2022, Illusory Systems (also known as Nomad) suffered a major security breach when attackers exploited an application security flaw in its Token Bridge smart contract platform. After pushing inadequately tested and poorly secured code to production, the company left the cross-chain bridge exposed to a vulnerability that was quickly leveraged by hackers to drain approximately $186 million in user-held cryptocurrencies. The breach went undetected internally, with staff first learning about it from a user on social media; response delays and lack of effective controls allowed attackers to empty the bridge. Regulatory investigation found misaligned security claims, absence of key safeguards, lack of automated fraud monitoring, and ineffective incident response processes, leading to severe financial and reputational damages for Illusory Systems. This incident echoes the rising threat landscape targeting blockchain infrastructure, with smart contract vulnerabilities increasingly exploited for high-value thefts. The FTC’s enforcement action against Illusory Systems highlights growing regulatory scrutiny and the urgent need for strong application security practices in the crypto-asset sector.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
AI-Powered Attacks Break Smart Contracts: A 2025 Blockchain Breach Analysis
In late 2025, advanced AI models including Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.5, Claude Sonnet 4.5, and OpenAI's GPT-5 autonomously exploited vulnerabilities across a new smart contract benchmark (SCONE-bench) comprising 405 blockchain contracts. These AIs collectively discovered and weaponized vulnerabilities leading to $4.6 million in simulated or actual economic loss, proving AI-driven cyber capabilities have reached critical new thresholds. Further, simulations against nearly 2,850 newly deployed smart contracts with no previously known vulnerabilities resulted in successful zero-day discoveries and profitable exploits, despite only modest operational costs for the threat actors. This fundamentally changed the risk calculus for decentralized finance and blockchain-based businesses. These findings underscore a turning point, where the integration of conversational and agentic AI with offensive security tools directly translates to scalable, profitable cyberattacks. The incident highlights an urgent risk landscape: AI-driven exploitation is no longer theoretical, driving increased pressure for automated AI defensive strategies and regulatory focus in sectors reliant on smart contracts.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
BRG Ransomware Breach: How a 2025 Attack Unveiled Legal Sector’s Vendor Risk
In March 2025, Berkeley Research Group (BRG), a prominent consulting and legal advisory firm, suffered a devastating ransomware attack attributed to the RansomHub cybercriminal group. Attackers leveraged persistent dwell time to infiltrate BRG’s network, exfiltrated sensitive data including M&A intelligence and confidential client materials, and encrypted key systems. The breach occurred during BRG's $700 million buyout by TowerBrook Capital Partners, amplifying the incident’s impact and resulting in exposure of information related to hundreds of active deals and thousands of individuals. The attackers’ extortion included threats of blackmail and public data leaks, leveraging their knowledge of both firm structure and sensitive client engagements. This attack spotlights a surge in professional services sector targeting—especially legal and advisory firms—by highly organized ransomware groups in 2024–2025. Threat actors like RansomHub have adopted prolonged infiltration tactics, optimized affiliate compensation, and leveraged industrialized extortion, mirroring broader ransomware trends and underscoring urgent vendor risk management needs.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
How the yETH DeFi Platform Lost $9 Million in a Flash Loan Exploit (2025)
In December 2025, an unknown threat actor successfully exploited a critical vulnerability in the yETH DeFi platform's smart contract infrastructure, using advanced flash loan manipulation tactics to drain approximately $9 million in funds. The attack was executed within minutes, bypassing protocol controls and effectively emptying several liquidity pools. Investigators reveal that the breach exploited flawed logic in the contract that allowed multiple reentrancies and circumvented rate checks, leading to rapid unauthorized fund transfers. Remediation steps included pausing affected smart contracts and collaborating with exchanges to freeze stolen assets. This incident highlights the rapidly evolving threat landscape targeting decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystems, where complex protocols and smart contract bugs can be weaponized for mass financial theft. Continued increases in such exploits have intensified regulatory and investor scrutiny while prompting the DeFi sector to emphasize real-time security visibility, automated incident response, and proactive contract auditing.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
Malicious Chrome Extension Diverts Solana in Raydium Swaps: Supply Chain Breach 2024
In May 2024, researchers identified a malicious Chrome extension named 'Crypto Copilot' that was surreptitiously injecting unauthorized Solana (SOL) transfer instructions during Raydium swap transactions, redirecting user assets to an attacker-controlled wallet. Initially published on the Chrome Web Store by a developer under the alias 'sjclark76,' the extension posed as a crypto utility tool but covertly modified transaction data to exfiltrate funds without user knowledge. The breach highlighted the growing risk of supply-chain malware within browser ecosystems and exposed users to direct financial theft via manipulated decentralized finance (DeFi) operations. This incident exemplifies a broader trend of attackers leveraging browser extensions to exploit DeFi and cryptocurrency users at scale. With the proliferation of novel supply-chain vectors and the rise of open-source and web-based crypto tools, organizations and individuals must exercise heightened due diligence and implement robust extension vetting and monitoring practices.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
Stop Active Cloud Data Exfiltration
Aviatrix Rapid Containment helps teams instantly identify what data is leaving the environment, from which workload, and where it’s going — during an active breach.
Looking for threats in a different sector?
Browse All Threat Reports