"A Truly Difficult Time": Algorand Foundation Releases Hack Statement

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Algordand Foundation has responded to the slew of hacks over the past few weeks.

In recent weeks, MyAlgo and Algodex were both hacked. MyAlgo urged users to withdraw their assets following a targeted attack that siphoned $9.2 million.

"We strongly advise all users to withdraw any funds from Mnemonic wallets that were stored in MyAlgo. As we still don't know the root cause of recent hacks, we encourage everyone to take precautionary measures to protect their assets. Thank you for your understanding," MyAlgo tweeted on 27 February, stating the attacks occurred one week prior.

Algodex revealed that a company wallet was infiltrated on 5 March. "Early on March 5, 2023, one of our company wallets was infiltrated by a malicious actor. This attack appears to be similar to what is currently happening in the #Algorand ecosystem," it tweeted.

Inaction

Crypto Twitter figurehead ZachXBT took aim at Algorand for failing to acknowledge the scam.

"How about you clowns actually acknowledge the on-going attack stealing millions from community members and assist them," he tweeted in response to Algorand Foundation's new CFO announcement.

"Why is it just people from the community and myself sharing the attackers addresses with exchanges meanwhile just silence from your embarrassment of an org," ZachZBT questioned.

The Twitter sleuth believes the $9.2 million hack comprised of 19.5 million ALGO and 3.5 million USDC between 19 and 21 February. He also believes that wallet drains are continuing as of 7 March.

Algorand Foundation's response

On 6 March, Algorand Foundation finally released a statement on Twitter about the attacks.

"This has been a truly difficult time for the Algorand community. The security breach has impacted a number of users of the MyAlgo Wallet, a third-party wallet by Rand Labs," the not-for-profit, community organisation tweeted.

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Algorand further revealed that it is bringing on blockchain security firm Halborn to "investigate and combat this on behalf of those impacted" as well as Chainalysis "to help trace compromised wallet transfers and freeze funds."

The foundation also advised MyAlgo Wallet asset holders to "immediately withdraw funds," declaring that MyAlgo is a third-party wallet provider and is not directly associated with the Algorand Foundation.

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