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The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is downsizing and rebranding its crypto enforcement unit, signaling a shift away from its aggressive crackdown on the industry. Once nearly doubled under former SEC Chair Gary Gensler, the SEC’s crypto task force unit will now shrink to around 20 specialists and focus on broader financial crimes, including AI-related fraud and cybersecurity threats. The move comes as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) prepares to audit the agency for wasteful spending. Previously called the Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit, the scaled back SEC division is now the Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit, according to a Feb. 20 press release . SEC Crypto Task Force Scaled Down In 2022, former SEC Chair Gary Gensler said that the crypto task force was almost doubling to 50 people. In the recent press release, the securities regulator said that the renamed unit will only include “approximately 20 fraud specialists and atto...

Floating Point Group informed customers that withdrawals had been halted after experiencing a security breach on Sunday evening. Cryptocurrency brokerage firm Floating Point Group (FPG) has confirmed it has halted trading, withdrawals and deposits on its platform after falling victim to a cyber attack on June 11. FPG estimates the attack resulted in a total loss of between $15 million and $20 million. According to a June 15 tweet from FPG’s official twitter account, upon discovering the security breach FPG locked all third party accounts and migrated wallets. It later halted trading, deposits and withdrawals out of “an abundance of caution.” 1/5 On Sunday, we experienced a cyber security incident. Upon discovery, we locked all third party accounts and migrated and secured all wallets until we better understand the scope and circumstances of this incident. — Floating Point Group (@fpgcrypto) June 14, 2023 Additionally, the firm noted that its account segregation “limited the...

The incident affected users who submitted a MetaMask customer service ticket between August 1, 2021 and February 10, 2023. The email address es of some MetaMask users may have been exposed to a malicious party due to a recently discovered cyber-security incident. According to parent company ConsenSys, the incident affected users who submitted a customer support ticket to MetaMask between August 1, 2021 and February 10, 2023. According to the April 14 blog post, unauthorized actors gained access to a third party’s computer system that was used to process customer service requests, potentially allowing them to view customer support tickets submitted by MetaMask users. These tickets did not ask for information other than what was necessary to help the user, including email address to facilitate replies. However, they did include a “free text-field,” which some users may have used to submit personally identifying information. This may have included “economic or financial information, ...

The vulnerability allegedly allows Web3 apps using the Starknet protocol to bypass the security protection of private keys in MPC wallets, potentially exposing users' private keys to wallet providers. Certain Multisignature (multisig) wallets can be exploited by Web3 apps that use the Starknet protocol, according to a March 9 press release provided to Cointelegraph by Multi-Party Computation (MPC) Wallet developer Safeheron. The vulnerability affects MPC wallets that interact with Starknet apps such as dYdX. According to the press release, Safeheron is working with app developer s to patch the vulnerability. According to Safeheron’s protocol documentation, MPC wallets are sometimes used by financial institutions and Web3 app developers to secure crypto assets they own. Similar to a standard multisig wallet, they require multiple signatures for each transaction. But unlike standard multisigs, they do not require specialized smart contracts to be deployed to the blockchain, nor d...