Crypto Heist Victimizes Chris Larsen
Recently unsealed court records by American law enforcement established that Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen was victimized in a sweeping crypto heist during January 2024. The investigation, spearheaded by on-chain analyst ZachXBT, shows that hackers compromised the private keys of Larsen due to a LastPass security breach in widespread practice.
How Hackers Stole 283M XRP
Larsen’s wallet was drained of some 283 million XRP, which at the time was valued at $150 million. Today, that same figure would be worth over $707 million. The loss resulted from private keys held on LastPass having been compromised when the company experienced a massive breach in 2022.
The 2022 LastPass Data Breach
LastPass, which is a popular password manager, was hacked twice within 2022. At the start of August, hackers infiltrated some of its dev environment, stealing source code and technical information. By the month of November, hackers exploited the stolen content to access customer vaults stored in a third-party cloud environment.
This weakness revealed unencrypted information, such as website URLs, while encrypted credentials such as passwords and usernames were still dependent on users’ master passwords for security. Unfortunately, this flaw was catastrophic for many users, including Larsen.
Larsen’s XRP Wallet Accessed via Stolen Vault Data
According to court filings, Larsen had stored the private keys to his cryptocurrency wallet in LastPass. In line with security best practices, he had erased physical copies after entering them into the password manager. However, the LastPass breach meant encrypted vault data was accessible to hackers to get his wallet and steal 283 million XRP.
Lessons from Larsen’s Loss
The heist highlights the dangers of relying solely on password managers to secure crypto. Experts now suggest cryptocurrency owners take advantage of cold storage sites and multi-signature wallets to lower risks.
While XRP’s price keeps shooting up, Larsen’s stolen fortune now exceeds $707 million, which is one of the largest crypto heists linked with a password manager hack. The heist puts into perspective the need for improved security measures within the crypto scene.
