Hackers hit the crypto exchange giant HTX with a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) on Friday morning, causing a brief outage.
A DDoS attack is a malicious attempt by bad actors to flood the target website with traffic to overwhelm the site’s infrastructure.
HTX is the newly rebranded name of Huobi. Tron (TRX) founder Justin Sun, who says he’s an “advisor” for the exchange, announced the hack early Friday morning. The crypto mogul noted a few minutes later that services had been restored and all user funds were safe.
The attack represents the latest in a string of incidents for HTX. In September, hackers exploited the exchange for approximately 4,999 Ethereum (ETH) worth $7.9 million, according to the blockchain security firm PeckShield.
In November, hackers hit two Sun-linked protocols, HTX and Heco Bridge, a bridge used to move funds between Ethereum and energy-saving blockchain Heco Chain, for a combined $100 million, according to cybersecurity firm Cyvers.
Sun also recently shared a response from Tron after the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a report earlier this month that it is the blockchain of choice for money launderers and fraudsters in East and Southeast Asia.
The UNODC says criminals in the region prefer to use the top stablecoin USDT on the Tron blockchain due to the combination’s stability, ease, anonymity and low transaction fees.
Tron claims the report is inaccurate.
“Tron actively engages with leading on-chain forensic partners to exchange information regarding transactions on the blockchain which play a vital part in the broader industry. Tron Network takes pride in staying on the frontier of the blockchain industry, which is a decentralized technology by design used for good.
As a decentralized technology, however, Tron cannot comment on the actions of independent third parties, including Tether. Tron fully supports the UN’s stance against malicious actors in the blockchain space. However, it is fundamentally flawed to assert that Tron, Ethereum or similar decentralized protocols may exercise direct control over those who leverage this open-source technology.”
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