Just recently Orion protocol was hacked to a tune of $3 million due to a reentrancy issue in its core contract: ExchangeWithOrionPool. Orion Protocol is the first gateway to the entire crypto market, aggregating every CEX, DEX, and swap pool into one decentralized platform.
The hacker repeatedly called the “depositAsset” function which exposed the contract to the exploit. It started with initial funding of 0.4BNB from Tornado Cash to Orion, and another 0.4ETH via SimpleSwap. The hacker moved to withdraw about 1100 ETH via Tornado Cash and locked up some 657 ETH in his wallets.
Orion Protocol CEO Alexey Koloskov confirmed the hack in a Twitter thread, stating that the hack was caused by a vulnerability in third-party libraries used during Orion’s development. Both the eth/bsc deployment channel are hacked. Interesting how hackers know what flaws to target. They have great knowledge too bad they are using it wrong.
The hack was made possible due to incomplete reentrancy protection: swapThroughOrionPool function allows user-provided swap path with crafted tokens whose transfer can be hijacked into re-entering depositAsset function to increase user balance accounting without actually costing funds.
Searching on Google “orion protocol” and it seems the first link goes to fraud website, When entered by mistake and it asks you to sign a suspicious transaction that can get control over your wallet.
Responding to the hack, Changpeng Zhao, CEO at Binance tweeted;
There was a hack in Orion Protocol ($ORN) due to a lack of re-login protection. The loss is ~$3M. Our security team is monitoring the hacker addresses. No Binance users / assets were affected, Stay SAFU.
However, CEO Alexey Koloskov claimed that the stolen funds were from Orion’s Treasury, adding that all users’ funds are safe.
We want to reassure our users that no user experienced any loss during this incident. The assets at risk were in internal broker’s accounts run by ourselves-the Orion team.
To avert potential vulnerabilities from third-party libraries, Koloskov said that the Orion team will prioritize developing all its contracts in-house.
Chinese leading short electric vehicle Xpeng is pushing aggressively into the international markets after it launched two of its flagship vehicles across a number of European countries.
The company revealed that the revamped version of its P7 sedan and its G9 sports utility vehicle SUV are available for order in Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, and Norway.
The company’s president Brian GU via a press statement revealed that the launch of the vehicles is a significant milestone for Xpeng as it continues to deepen its presence in the international market.
The Guangzhou-based car maker which went public in Hong Kong and New York in 2020, has global ambitions and continues to expand further in Europe. Last month, it stated that it will open four vehicle delivery and service centers for the European market in Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark in the first half of 2023.
Xpeng had already begun delivering Chinese-made electric vehicles to Norway in September 2020 and has opened several showrooms in cooperation with local dealers in the continent, including a direct sales store in Stockholm, Sweden. The company has sold 1,264 vehicles in Norway so far, while BYD has delivered 2,710 Tang crossovers
Meanwhile, Xpeng which has sought to challenge Tesla in China though still remains significantly behind Elon Musk’s carmaker when it comes to deliveries, and is also facing a price war with established Chinese EV maker BYD, which focuses on affordability.
The Chinese electric automaker is also gearing up to launch its eVTOL into the air as it secures a key regulatory green light. Xpeng is pursuing these ambitions at a time its main EV business is hitting a speed bump.
The carmaker has pushed back its profit goal until 2025 after a disappointing 2022, in which it delivered less than half of its annual sales target earlier this week.
The company shares plunged 80% and it delivered less than half its annual sales target. Having previously aimed to break even by late 2023 or early 2024, the Guangzhou-based automaker now expects to turn an operating profit in 2025.
To achieve that goal, Xpeng Chief Executive Officer He Xiaopeng stated that he is making a bold bet on full self-driving, a technology that even leading EV company Tesla hasn’t been able to perfect despite years of work.
He is aiming to snare at least 20% of what he calls the “all-intelligent vehicle” market, referring to cars “infinitely close to Level 4 autonomous driving” where the vehicle can handle complex urban situations.
Xiaopeng further disclosed that while no mass-produced passenger cars currently available meet that definition, he said rapid developments in technology will see the market grow to around 5 million vehicles a year in five years.
Tesla is also ramping up production in the country.
Tesla is set to increase output in Shanghai, China, to 20,000 units per week after price cuts increased demand for its cars, Reuters reports, citing a memo. The electric vehicle company cut prices in its lucrative Chinese market on the Model Y and 3 cars by up to 9.4% amid the global economic slowdown, resulting in renewed customer interest. Hoping to boost its disappointing performance over the past year, the company made similar price cuts in the U.S. and Europe, aggravating rivals as well as some customers who made purchases before the discounts.
We begin on Monday, Feb 6, 2023. Our classroom is unbounded and unconstrained by capacity, and we have a seat for you. From business strategy to ChatGPT playbook, and across 14 modules, over 100+ courses, we deliver unparalleled value for N60k or $140. The #best school begins the next edition on Monday.
Come and let’s co-learn at Tekedia Mini-MBA.
Welcome! At Tekedia Institute, we co-learn with thousands of professionals and students, from 41 countries, on the mechanics of business, connecting innovation, growth and operational execution, across market territories and industrial sectors. Our Faculty members come from Microsoft, Google, Shell, Flutterwave, Nigerian Breweries, NNPC, Jobberman, Coca Cola, PwC, and other great organizations. Besides pre-recorded courseware, thrice weekly, we hold live Zoom sessions (Tue, Thur and Sat at 7pm WAT). REGISTER and join us! – Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe, Tekedia Institute Lead Faculty.
Since September 28, 2022, the candidates of the 18 political parties cleared for the 2023 presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have been campaigning aggressively using different platforms. From the digital sphere to the physical sphere, each candidate has informed Nigerians and is still engaging with them on programmes and policy agendas that would be implemented when he is elected as the new president on February 25, 2023. Like the previous presidential campaigns, where candidates dished out party manifestos using different techniques, the 2023 presidential candidates are not quite different in their adoption of words and terms that are elusive in their meanings and practicability.
The candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has been promoting and marketing himself and the party with the message of “renewed hope.” Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour Party candidate, has largely campaigned using “Our Pact with Nigerians,” aiming to create a new Nigeria. Many have described him as the “new bird” and a “person with the potential of rewriting patterns of presidential election outcomes in Nigeria” because of his acclaimed youth-supportive movement across the country. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, does not really see reason in changing his campaign message theme because contesting for the Office of the President is not new to him. For the 2023 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar decided to use his 2019 policy document tagged “My Covenant with Nigerians.”
These candidates have used and are still using themes for building and creating divisions based on their use of an organised persuasive communication strategy that has elements such as fake news, misinformation, disinformation and purposeful manipulation of citizens’ religious interests and ethnic hegemony. For many citizens, who could not separate politics from personal and business relationships, discussing the candidates and their ideological differences has mainly consisted of exchanging severe banter as well as unnecessary criticism. Our analysis of several political-related interactions on digital platforms, especially Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, shows people are attacking personalities rather than addressing the issues and needs the candidates are promoting.
This is not new in a democratic setting. Other democracies in the global south, where Nigeria belongs, and the global north have experienced a toxic campaign environment like this. In the United States of America and the United Kingdom, for instance, many academics and think tanks reported how presidential candidates’ campaign strategies increased people’s toxic relationships and possible interest in considering suicide when their preferred candidates lost the election.
A recent poll in the USA noted that many Americans dropped friends and family members who have different political views. According to the poll, nearly one in five voters said political divisions hurt their relationships. This means that they felt unsupported, misunderstood, demeaned, or attacked. This, according to many scholars and established reports, may contribute to a toxic social environment that can lead to stress, depression, anxiety, and even suicide.
With this background insight, our analyst examines the interest of Nigerians who use the Internet to seek information about the candidates and the two issues (toxic relationships and suicide, one of the possible outcomes of toxic relationships) between September 28, 2022 and February 3, 2023. In terms of having interest in the candidates, our analysis shows that Nigerians developed more interest in Mr. Peter Obi and Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu than Alhaji Atiku Abubakar when they (Nigerians) were considered within the campaigns and elections category of Google Trends. During the period, the interest in suicide was greater than the interest in toxic relationships. Further analysis reveals an 18.3% connection between toxic relationships and suicide, indicating that the more Nigerians engaged in conversations that were toxic during the period, the more they developed an interest in understanding suicide. In essence, an interest in toxic relationships led to more than 18 searches for suicide information.
Exhibit 1: Public interest in candidates and two issues by state
Source: Google Trends, 2023
The interest in the three candidates collectively accounted for 12.6% interest in suicide ideation and 17.2% interest in toxic relationships. Individually, having interest in Mr. Peter Obi was more determined by a toxic relationship (2.1%) than other candidates (Alhaji Atiku Abubakar = 0.4% and Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu = 0.5%). Nigerians’ interest in suicidal ideation was more determined by their having an interest in Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu (0.9%) and Mr. Peter Obi (0.5%) than Alhaji Atiku Abubakar (0.2%). These results suggest that mental health experts, family members and relatives of people who are having toxic conversations in the digital sphere and in various physical settings need to pay specific attention to them. They need to be comforted every time. This is primarily imperative for people in Ebonyi, Benue, Rivers, Oyo and Ogun States, including the Federal Capital Territory, where people significantly developed interest in the two issues (suicide ideation and toxic relationships) during the period of our analysis.
Exhibit 2: Position of candidates and the key issues relative to public volume of searches
Source: Google Trends, 2023; Infoprations Analysis, 2023
Exhibit 3: Connection of public interest in the two issues with candidates
Source: Google Trends, 2023; Infoprations Analysis, 2023
The management of Fidelity Bank Plc has assured customers of cash payment across all its branches nationwide.
This was made known in a statement reported to have been issued by Fidelity bank management on Thursday following a trending video in which two customers were spotted fighting inside a Fidelity bank branch over difficulty in accessing the new Naira notes.
The statement issued by the Head of Corporate Communications of Fidelity Bank, Dr. Meksley Nwagboh, reads as follows:
“Our customers can rest assured that we are working to meet their banking needs.
“All our branches nationwide are open to customers to pay in their old notes and withdraw the new notes in accordance with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s policy on Naira redesign.”
Nwagboh, therefore, enjoined customers of the bank to visit the nearest branch to carry out their banking transactions.
It is not a hidden knowledge that many Nigerians have been hard-pressed lately due to difficulty in depositing the old naira notes and withdrawing the redesigned notes at their various commercial banks despite efforts to meet up with Central Bank deadline which had earlier been slated for January 31, 2023.
Many of the Point of Sales outlets which hitherto provide alternatives for individuals who quickly need to withdraw cash or make other transactions fro their bank accounts have also complained about not getting enough cash from the commercial banks. Therefore, some of the payment agents have resorted to charging exorbitantly on cash withdrawal for as much as 1000 Naira per 10,000 Naira as against the usual 200Naira per 10,000Naira cash withdrawal.
Due to pressures from the media and the National Assembly, the CBN has extended the deadline for the deposit of the old Naira notes up until February 10. The Apex bank also issued a directive for the commercial banks to swiftly commence over-the-counter payment of the new naira notes to their customers across the country.
