Ethereum (ETH) decentralized exchange protocol AirSwap’s developers announced that they have discovered a critical vulnerability in the system’s new smart contract. AirSwap’s team announced its findings and a possible solution for all potentially affected users in a Medium post published on Sept. 13. A limited vulnerability Per the release, on Sept. 12 AirSwap’s development team found a vulnerability in a new smart contract, which has already been reverted to an older version in under 24 hours after the discovery. The exploit in question could have allowed an attacker to perform a swap without requiring a signature from a counterparty under …

The United States Treasury Department announced further sanctions against three North Korean state-sponsored hacker groups, responsible for “North Korea’s malicious cyber activity on critical infrastructure.” Continue to enforce existing U.S. and U.N. sanctions against North Korea On Sept. 13, the U.S. Department of Treasury announced sanctions against North Korean hacking groups, more specifically the renowned Lazarus group, and two lesser-known entities, Bluenoroff and Andariel. Sigal Mandelker, Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence said: “Treasury is taking action against North Korean hacking groups that have been perpetrating cyber attacks to support illicit weapon and missile programs. [...] We will …

Digital asset cybersecurity startup Fireblocks announced that it now supports five more cryptocurrency exchanges, bringing the total number of covered platforms to 20. According to the official announcement, with this release, market makers, prop traders and OTCs have a simple and secure unified workflow for securing assets in motion between 20 different exchanges. The release states: “Fireblocks, an enterprise platform for securing digital assets in transit, announced today five new exchange integrations, adding support for OKCoin, OKEx, Korbit, Bithub, and HitBTC. This release also expands current integrations with Huobi Global's API and Deribit, extending its umbrella of protection to a …

This week saw twin reports from smart contract startup Simba Chain and blockchain data management firm Constellation, both of whom announced contracts with the United States Air Force. New utility in USAF Judging by these developments, the U.S. Air Force is looking seriously at new tech to shore up supply chains and rearrange data. Simba Chain has reportedly been tasked with prototyping a blockchain approach for the registration and tracking of additive manufacturing — also known as 3D printing — components throughout their lifecycles. Meanwhile, according to the original press release: “Constellation's technology will help securely unlock traditionally siloed and …

Australian software programmer and Bitcoin’s (BTC) Lightning Network coder Rusty Russell warned users that “security issues have been found in various Lightning projects which could cause loss of funds.” Urgent update recommended On Aug. 30, Russell published a tweet urging LN nodes operators to update their software as soon as possible. According to the message, his warning concerns all versions of c-lightning prior to 0.7.1, lnd older than 0.7, and eclair up to version 0.3. Notably, just earlier this month blockchain development company Blockstream announced the release of the version 0.7.2 of its BTC scalability software c-lightning. Details to be …

Blockchain software development firm Parity released an update for its Ethereum (ETH) node software which fixes a vulnerability present in some instances. Remote node crashing vulnerability In a blog post published on Aug. 29, Parity announced the release of an update for its Ethereum node software fixing the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) vulnerability. Per the announcement, nodes running Parity’s software with manually enabled public-facing RPC could be remotely crashed with a specially constructed RPC call. The team suspects that nodes with manually enabled tracing may also be vulnerable to the exploit. The author of the post points out that not …

Gemini, the cryptocurrency exchange and custody founded by the Winklevoss twins, has hired cybersecurity expert David Damato as its new chief security officer (CSO). Damato was previously the CSO of cybersecurity firm Tanium. Tyler Winklevoss announced the new hire in an official blog post on Aug. 19. According to the blog, Damato previously created and led a cybersecurity team at Tanium that provided security services to government agencies, Fortune 500 firms and numerous banks. In the announcement, Tyler Winklevoss emphasized that Gemini has always had a security-first mentality, citing its SOC2 Type I examination — a type of audit — …

South Korea’s oldest bank, Shinhan Bank, partnered with two other companies to develop a blockchain-based security solution. Korea’s Shinhan bank to enhance security with blockchain According to a report published on Aug. 14 by local news outlet The Korea Times, Shinhan Bank signed a memorandum of understanding with financial technology startup Ground X and blockchain developer Hexlant to develop a blockchain security system. Per the report, the deal will see the institution’s partners jointly develop a Private Key Management System for its banking services. Ground X is the blockchain unit of South Korean messaging giant Kakao, and is reportedly expected …

Private transactions cryptocurrency PIVX and over 200 other blockchains are vulnerable to attackers obtaining disproportionately high staking rewards. A major staking vulnerability Cryptocurrency consulting firm Lunar Digital Assets claimed in a post published on its website on Aug. 12 that a staking vulnerability is being used across PIVX and its forks. The weakness reportedly allows the attacker to obtain mathematically impossible staking rewards on vulnerable proof-of-stake (PoS) chains. According to the post’s author, the PIVX development team claimed to have solved the issue in January. Nonetheless, a core developer of PoS altcoin BitGreen (BITG) noticed that the vulnerability in question …

The United States Department of Defense (DoD) is pursuing blockchain solutions for cybersecurity as part of its digital modernization strategy. The DoD released plans for blockchain tech in its four-year roadmap on July 12, entitled “DoD Digital Modernization Strategy: DoD Information Resource Management Strategic Plan FY19–23.” According to the report, the DoD’s research branch, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is currently engaged in at least two exploratory blockchain projects focused on cybersecurity. First, DARPA is experimenting with blockchain in order to construct a new — or improved — communication and transaction platform. Stated intentions for this platform include …

The federal judge overseeing Terpin Vs. AT&T has dismissed the motion. This news is the latest in a legal battle pertaining to crypto stolen via SIM-swapping that has been going on for almost a year industry news outlet, The Block, reports on July 26. As Cointelegraph previously reported, in August last year Terpin filed a lawsuit against AT&T, since he believes that the telecoms giant had provided hackers with access to his phone number, which led to a major crypto heist. Earlier this month the federal judge overseeing the case has also denied the telecom giant’s motion for dismissal. Per …

Bank of Thailand governor Veerathai Santiprabhob said that the institution is open to discussing Facebook’s Libra stablecoin with the company, Chinese state-run press agency Xinhuanet reported on July 19. Per the report, Santiprabhob made his remarks at the Bangkok FinTech Fair on July 19, pointing out that Facebook had already contacted the central bank many times. He also noted that the institution had established a new team to study Libra’s whitepaper, but their analysis will take time. “We are not going to rush into a decision of Libra as yet,” Santiprabhob reportedly said, continuing to emphasize the importance of security: …