Indonesian authorities have apprehended a local hacker who allegedly took advantage of security vulnerabilities in the deposit system of the trading platform Markets.com to pilfer $398,000 worth of cryptocurrency. The suspect, known only as HS, was taken into custody in Bandung, West Java, on Saturday following a complaint from Finalto International Limited, the company that owns Markets.com. The incident resulted in losses amounting to $398,000 (Rp 6.67 billion) for the platform, and HS is now facing charges under Indonesia’s cybercrime and anti-money laundering laws, with potential penalties including up to 15 years in prison and fines of $900,000 (Rp 15 billion).
Decrypt reached out to Finalto International for additional comments but did not receive a response. Deputy Cybercrime Director Andri Sudarmadi explained that investigators uncovered how HS allegedly exploited a glitch in Markets.com’s nominal input system. The platform apparently calculated USDT balances based on any deposit amount provided by the attacker, creating an opportunity for fraudulent activities without proper backend validation. The police discovered that HS had set up four fake accounts under various names and gathered real identity data by scraping Indonesian national ID information from publicly accessible websites. Authorities revealed that HS, who has been involved in computer accessory distribution and cryptocurrency trading since 2017, utilized his expertise to identify and take advantage of the system weakness.
During the operation, the police confiscated a laptop, mobile phone, CPU unit, ATM card, a 152-square-meter shophouse in Bandung, and a cold wallet containing 266,801 USDT valued at around $4.2 million (Rp 4.45 billion). Cybersecurity consultant David Sehyeon Baek stated that the scraped ID data indicated the hacker had connections to a larger underground data network, emphasizing the insufficient nature of traditional KYC methods. Baek highlighted the importance of exchanges adopting continuous monitoring, device and network intelligence, and enhanced cross-platform collaboration to detect synthetic identities early on. He mentioned that the case aligns with a significant industry trend as attackers are shifting away from complex smart contract hacks towards exploiting vulnerabilities in Web2 systems, like business logic flaws, weak APIs, broken access controls, and inadequate backend validation.
Addressing these concerns can be achieved through implementing basic secure coding practices, conducting internal code reviews, and performing routine security tests. Baek emphasized the need for exchanges to enhance their security measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.
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