The cryptocurrency platform that was targeted by last week’s $600 million dollar heist asks the hacker to become its chief security advisor.
In yet another bizarre twist to the recent Poly Network hack, the offender has been asked to come and work for the company he almost bankrupted. The attack is believed to be the biggest cryptocurrency theft in the history. Worse than the Coincheck attack in 2018 ok around $540 million and the attack on Mt. Gox in 2014 of $450 million. The platform had previously offered “Mr. White Hat” a $500,000 bounty for restoring the user funds, which the hacker alleged turned down. He later said that “I am considering taking the bounty as a bonus for public hackers if they can hack the Poly Network.”
In the wake of the attack, Poly also announced a new bug bounty program, saying that “we also plan on launching a new global-bounty program to encourage more security agencies and white hat organizations to participate in the audit of Poly Network’s core functions.”
In a blog post on Medium, Poly Network took it a step further and wrote that “to extend our thanks and encourage Mr. White Hat to continue contributing to security advancement in the blockchain world together with Poly Network, we cordially invite Mr. White Hat to be the Chief Security Advisor of Poly Network.” It would appear that the damage done to Poly was, in fact, the wake-up call the hacker had intended to make.
In a series of statements after the hack, Mr. White Hat stated that, among other things, he attacked Poly Network to highlight how vulnerable the system was to attack. He also said the entire ordeal was “for fun.”
Hiring somebody who owes you millions
In a story full of twists and turns, the job offer is just the latest. What makes the decision to hire Mr. White Hat for such a high-ranking position is unusual, considering the hacker still owes more than $30 million in stolen funds. An additional $200 million of the money is also still locked in an account that requires both the Poly Network and Mr. White Hat to provide keys at the same time to recoup the assets. Despite this, Mr. White Hat has been dragging his feet and has yet to provide half of the key. According to Mr. White Hat, he is just waiting until “everyone is ready.”
The hiring of Mr. White Hat will help Poly Network implement what they are calling a “significant system upgrade,” in order to prevent a similar attack from happening down the road. Poly Network did admit their hands are tied until the remaining assets are returned, and they can operate normally.
Poly Network also said it “has no intention of holding Mr. White Hat legally responsible.”