How to Outwit Hackers: Arilot CTO Managed to Retake a Stolen Million

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by Julia Sakovich · 3 min read
How to Outwit Hackers: Arilot CTO Managed to Retake a Stolen Million
Photo: Pixabay

Daniel Yavorovych, Arilot CO-Founder & CTO, explained how it is possible to save the funds that were stolen by hackers from one’s hot wallet.

Though in the crypto community it is widely believed that once being hacked you lose these funds forever, it is not 100% true. There are some peculiarities about blockchain, knowing which may lelp save your money. Daniel Yavorovych, Arilot CO-Founder & CTO, has shared these secrets.

Being a team of highly professional engineers and developers, Arilot works with innovative tech projects including blockchain-based ones. The company helps its clients to find the most effective solutions and one day it was reached by some unnamed company’s CTO who had noticed that their company had been hacked. As a result of that attack, the project hot-wallet was emptied and a significant sum of funds was stolen.

At first glance, it could seem that it was the end: a bit less than 1 000 000 USD was transferred to external Bitcoin wallets.  Nevertheless, the fact that there was no confirmation of those transactions due to overloading of the Bitcoin network gave a chance to at least try do something to save the funds.

As Daniel Yavorovych explained, till the moment when a transaction is confirmed in blockchain, it remains isolated in a special temporary storage which is called Mempool. It means that during the time of this transaction isolation in Mempool, you still have a chance to change something. For example, it is possible to increase the fee or edit the address of the recipient of your transaction.

It is a mistake to suppose that when you want try to conduct a transaction your funds will be sent just immediately. When the transaction is formed, all your funds on your balance are just blocked until the transaction is confirmed.

After the confirmations come (it happens when mining equipment manages to find this transaction and to confirm it) and blockchain.info sees these incoming confirmations, your transaction is considered to be valid. Your addressee receives the funds, and you have your previously blocked sum back.

Nevertheless, it is important to understand that while there is no confirmation of your transaction, you are still the only owner of your funds. So, if you want to change something about the transaction that you have carried out in a wrong way, you need to send one more transaction. But, it should be discovered by a miner earlier that the one that was initially conducted.

It is obvious that miners are interested in getting the biggest income possible. When they confirm transactions, they receive their reward which depends on the transaction fee cost. So, the higher the fee appointed by a user is, the bigger income can be received by a miner.

That’s why, having a task to save 1 000 000 USD, Yavorovych decided to create a transaction with a really huge fee and to change the address of the receiver (he put the address belonging to the company,  which money he was trying to save). The fee that Yavorovych appointed over $100 instead of initial $7.

And just in 30 minutes the first confirmation came! After all six necessary confirmations of this transaction were received, the first transaction made by hackers was cancelled and the money was saved.

So, it’s not over yet till it’s over. Sometimes it is necessary just not to miss your chance.

Bitcoin News, Cryptocurrency News, News
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