Infosec in brief The latest indictment of a massive SIM-swapping ring could mean convicted crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried is innocent of at least one charge still hanging over his head: the theft of more than $400 million in crypto hacked from wallets belonging to his crypto company FTX, just before it went bankrupt.
The FTX Collapse, Explained | WSJ What went wrong
As reported earlier this week, a trio of individuals, led by Chicago resident Robert Powell, were indicted [PDF] accused of conducting SIM swapping attacks on over 50 victims in 13 US states from 2021 to 2023, stealing hundreds of millions of dollars in the process.
The trio's biggest move was the theft of more than $400 million in cryptocurrency from an unnamed "Victim Company-1" on November 11, 2022 – the same day FTX declared bankruptcy and an unknown attacker stole approximately $415 million in crypto from the company.
Brian Krebs was the first to make the connection between the indictment of the Powell gang and the FTX theft, and blockchain analytics firm Elliptic backed him up, noting "we are not aware of any other thefts from crypto companies on this scale, on these dates."
