Company hit by 'biggest hack in history' issues urgent warning to delete iPhone apps
It's been dubbed the biggest heist in history, and with some $6.3 billion being stolen in just 20 minutes, October 29's Binance hack was one for the ages. There have been questions in the aftermath about how secure our digital assets are and what this move away from the traditional handling of money could mean.
Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs put the blame at the doorstep of an 'elite' North Korean hacking unit known as TraderTraitor, while Binance CEO Richard Teng suggested a compromised employee laptop might've been the trigger for the world's biggest heist.
Binance assured customers that their money was safe, and as well as some losses being covered by the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), it confirmed the rest would be covered by its own internal reserves.
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Even though the cryptocurrency world has slowly returned to some sort of normality, Binance has now warned iPhone users to delete any apps they think could be suspicious.
As the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Binance issued a PSA imploring iPhone users running iOS 26 and iOS 27 to delete any apps that weren't downloaded from the official Apple App Store. Considering iOS 27 is the current version (iOS 27.2.1), it's a major cause for concern.
The Bitcoin giant warned that there's an ability for "malicious apps to read local files from other apps, putting seed phrases, private keys, and login credentials at risk across the entire ecosystem.”
Posting on X, Binance reiterated that the issue specifically affects iOS 26.7.1, 27.0.1, and 27.2, allowing malicious apps to read local files from other apps.
Bad actors could gain access to private keys and login credentials, meaning your crypto wallets might also be at risk.
The vulnerability is a known iOS sandbox escape technique called 'worse_query' that allows a compromised app to get into the storage of others.
Still, Binance went on to state that it's an 'iOS-level issue' and not just isolated to the crypto giant.
There are no confirmed crypto-related losses, and while Apple has released updates, they don't appear to have tackled the worse_query issue, and coverage is unclear. This means Binance still tells you to delete any untrusted apps while also ensuring you've got the latest iOS installed.
Cybercrime is on the rise, with Chainalysis reporting that over $3.4 billion was stolen in 2025. North Korean groups are said to be responsible for around $2 billion of the total, while personal wallets account for about $713 million.
It comes as cryptocurrency scams swiped $17 billion in 2025, largely pointing toward a 1,400% spike in impersonation scams and AI-powered fraud.
Reminding us to keep our wallets safe, Binance CEO Yi He concluded: “If you suspect a breach, transfer funds to a new wallet created on a clean device and reset all active login sessions."
