Security
Binance resumes withdrawals after $6.3 billion crypto theft
The exchange is restoring access in phases after hackers drained its wallets, says it has covered 95% of the stolen assets and will absorb the losses itself.
Still
Crunchy.
YESTERDAY, STILL WORTH KNOWING
Binance restores withdrawals after a $6.3 billion theft, Sam Altman courts Samsung for memory, and an xAI pollution lawsuit proceeds.
Binance recovers and Altman goes shopping
Binance, a major cryptocurrency exchange, has resumed customer withdrawals in phases after hackers stole $6.3 billion of crypto from its wallets. It froze deposits and withdrawals while containing the incident, and says it has now covered 95% of the stolen assets, will bear the losses itself rather than pass them to users, and is still sourcing the remainder, which it describes as less liquid and slower to buy at the required scale. As of Sunday morning its status page showed a mix of normal, partially suspended and fully suspended services, with Bitcoin withdrawals still partially suspended and temporary delays warned of due to traffic volume. The FBI attributes the theft to TraderTraitor, a North Korean group it says was converting the stolen assets primarily into Ethereum, with further laundering likely. A fuller incident report is promised once the investigation is complete.
OpenAI chief Sam Altman met about 50 senior Samsung executives in South Korea on October 30 to seek memory for AI data centres amid a shortage, reportedly with DRAM supply, the standard memory in computers, estimated 1% to 2% short of demand this year. Samsung confirmed the discussion covered cooperation under an October letter of intent, including memory for OpenAI's Stargate project, but emphasised AI transformation rather than announcing a new supply agreement. AMD CEO Lisa Su visited Samsung earlier in October to discuss securing additional high-bandwidth memory, a specialised form of DRAM used in AI systems, saying it is important to plan three to five years ahead with partners.
Courts, in America and Brazil
A federal judge has allowed a Clean Air Act lawsuit by the NAACP, a US civil rights organisation, against xAI to proceed, alleging it ran at least 35 gas turbines at its Colossus data centre near Memphis without required air permits. Judge Debra M. Brown rejected xAI's arguments that the turbines were exempt as mobile sources and that plaintiffs lacked standing, and a similar motion from the Justice Department was denied earlier this month. NAACP environmental justice director Abre' Connor called the ruling 'another important victory in our effort to hold xAI accountable'.
Two Brazilian lawyers were fined about $16,000 after a labour court found hidden white-on-white text in a filing instructing its AI system, Galileu, to respond superficially. The court called it prompt injection, meaning planting hidden instructions to steer AI systems, blamed the lawyers rather than the plaintiff, and reported them to the bar, though the plaintiff had won by default anyway.