Binance CSO: Security Research Fund Being Established to Focus on AI-Related Security Threats in Blockchain

November 9 — Binance Chief Security Officer Jimmy Su said during a fireside chat on Binance X Space that Binance is hiring external security experts to conduct a comprehensive independent review of the October 29 security incident, verify the conclusions of its internal investigation and propose improvements. Binance is also working with leading AI companies, security firms and other partners to establish a security research fund focused on AI-related security threats in blockchain. He said that going forward, internal AI tools and development environments will be managed to critical infrastructure standards.

The transaction approvals exploited by the attackers exist on-chain and do not pass through Binance's withdrawal system, so pausing withdrawals could not stop the outflow of funds; separate on-chain transactions had to be sent to revoke the approvals. Binance's hot wallet uses multi-party computation (MPC) technology, and no single private key could immediately revoke the approvals, so the team had to devise a revocation process on the spot, which is why it took several hours to bring the situation under control. He also said the attack used zero-day malware, which third-party endpoint protection software failed to detect at the time.