India Flags AI-Assisted Campaign as South Korea Urges Exchange Security After Binance Hack

India’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) identified an active AI-assisted campaign targeting financial firms, while South Korea’s Financial Services Commission urged stronger exchange security after Binance’s $6.3 billion hot-wallet incident.

The CRAFTY FALCON campaign targets financial businesses, including cryptocurrency exchanges and virtual asset service providers. It uses payment and disbursement APIs. Some incidents involving crypto platforms included stolen wallet keys and funds siphoned from wallets. CERT-In described the threat as “active and ongoing.”

At a Nov. 2 meeting, South Korea’s Financial Services Commission called for higher cold-wallet holdings, continuous monitoring of deposits and withdrawals, more response staff, faster information sharing and additional reserves. South Korean rules already require virtual asset service providers to hold at least 80% of customers’ virtual assets in cold wallets.

Binance said its hot wallets were compromised at about 4:05 p.m. ET (20:05 UTC) Oct. 29, affecting an estimated $6.3 billion in token assets. In an Oct. 30 update, the exchange said about $3 billion had been frozen on-chain by then. That figure does not establish the final net loss. The FBI attributed the theft of more than $6 billion in virtual assets from Binance to North Korea on Oct. 31.