Bengaluru techie arrested in Rs 379 crore CoinDCX crypto theft: How hacker used his login to siphon funds; got call from Germany | Bengaluru News

BENGALURU: Investigation in the Rs 379-crore cryptocurrency theft reported by CoinDCX has taken an interesting turn with Bengaluru City police arresting a software engineer of the company after hackers allegedly succeeded in compromising confidential financial processes using his login credentials.The arrested employee is Rahul Agarwal, 30, a resident of Carmelaram area and from Haridwar in Uttarakhand. The arrest follows a complaint by Neblio Technologies, which runs crypto trading platform CoinDCX.Quoting Neblio vice-president for public policy Hardeep Singh, police said: “Rahul was on the permanent rolls of the company and he had been given a laptop strictly for office work. He came under the scanner after the company found out that an unknown person had hacked into the system at 2.37am on July 19 and transferred one USDT to a wallet. Around 9.40am, the hacker siphoned off $44 million (Rs 379 crore) and transferred it to six wallets.“

When the company conducted an internal investigation, it was found that security credentials of Rahul Agarwal’s laptop were compromised, allowing the hacker to access the company’s server.

Techie got call from Germany: Cops

Following this, Rahul’s laptop was seized. During questioning, Rahul claimed innocence about the crypto theft. However, he admitted to moonlighting and taking up work with 3-4 private parties without being aware of their credentials.Internal investigations said Rs 15 lakh had been remitted to his bank account from an unknown source. Police said: “Rahul maintained receiving a WhatsApp call from a German number stating a few files had been sent to him for completion. He said one of the files could have been a bait and the hacker could have entered into his official system. He maintained he was not aware of the theft till his company summoned him.”Whitefield CEN crime police detained Rahul on July 26.