• The Special Cell of the Delhi Police managed to capture SK Masud Alam, a resident of West Bengal.
• The chargesheet states that Alam had an account on WazirX made under the name Souvik Mondal.

The arrest of SK Masud Alam, a resident of West Bengal, by the Delhi Police in relation to the ₹2,000 crore hack on cryptocurrency exchange WazirX is a significant development.

Allegedly, Alam used a phony account to launch the assault, which sought to compromise both the hot and cold wallets of WazirX. This hack brought to light security flaws in digital asset exchanges and was one of the biggest in the crypto industry.

The Special Cell of the Delhi Police, acting on an investigation spearheaded by the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) division, managed to capture Alam, a native of East Midnapore in West Bengal.

The chargesheet states that Alam had an account on WazirX made under the name Souvik Mondal, which he then sold to M. Hasan using Telegram. The cyberattack was subsequently conducted using this account. Because of their suspicion that Alam is involved with a broader network of cybercriminals, the police have not stopped investigating his links.

Liminal Custody’s Cooperation in Enquiry

Another point brought up in the chargesheet is the supposed lack of cooperation by Liminal Custody, the company in charge of protecting WazirX’s digital wallets. There are issues over Liminal Custody’s security measures due to the fact that, despite many notifications from the Delhi Police, the facility allegedly did not give vital information required for the inquiry.

Police have noted that Liminal’s participation would be addressed in a supplemental chargesheet; nonetheless, the lack of cooperation has further hindered attempts to identify the entire breadth of the hack.

The Delhi Police confiscated three computers belonging to WazirX, which were used by authorized signatories to approve transactions using multi-sig wallets, during the inquiry. The authorities have also verified that WazirX has been quite cooperative with the inquiry, yielding crucial information including KYC records and transaction logs that would be useful in tracing the stolen funds.

Users are unable to withdraw funds and are stuck in a limbo post the hack, with legal remedies not yielding any positive results. However, with this latest development, hopefully, the funds will be recovered, offering huge relief to the WazirX users.

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