TRANSCRIPT · The $6.3 Billion Binance Hack Was Pulled Off in Just 20 Minutes

## The $6.3 Billion Binance Hack Was Pulled Off in Just 20 Minutes (Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/the-dollar63-billion-binance-hack-was-pulled-off-in-just-20-minutes/
GRANT BRICKMAN: Breaking: the biggest crypto heist on record, and most of it took about 20 minutes.
GRANT BRICKMAN: Breaking news. New details on the largest crypto heist on record: Binance, billions of dollars, and a very short window of time.
GRETA FOOTNOTE: We first told you this morning that Binance's breach went beyond one laptop. Wired now reports about 6.3 billion dollars went out, mostly in about 20 minutes.
GRANT BRICKMAN: Twenty minutes. My fax machine needs longer than that to send one page, and nobody calls that a heist.
GRETA FOOTNOTE: Kai is at the data center. Kai, what do we know so far?
KAI: Huge, Greta. Starting around 4pm Eastern on Thursday, hackers started siphoning about 6.3 billion dollars across multiple blockchains from Binance wallets.
KAI: That's file footage of server racks. Wired says most of the money moved in about 20 minutes on October 29, and Binance suspended all deposits and withdrawals.
KAI: Binance and other crypto firms say they have frozen around half of it. Much of the rest may not be possible to freeze. Huge problem.
KAI: Three tracing firms link it to North Korean hackers TraderTraitor. Elliptic's Tom Robinson tells Wired, quote, we think North Korea is likely responsible.
GRETA FOOTNOTE: Robinson adds that if North Korea is behind it, this one theft would almost double everything the regime has stolen in crypto to date. Binance says it is still identifying who did it.

## Startup wants to make AI agents safe for DevOps duty (The Register)
https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/10/29/startup-wants-to-make-ai-agents-safe-for-devops-duty/5306477
GRETA FOOTNOTE: A startup wants AI agents safe enough to touch real servers. Our panel is not calm about it.
GRETA FOOTNOTE: For viewers just joining: we first told you about this Friday at 01:19, today. Vera Platforms wants AI agents trustworthy enough for DevOps. Lyle, Prudence.
LYLE HOTCHKISS: Letting an agent loose on live servers is handing a goldfish the keys to the Panama Canal.
PRUDENCE NUANCE: The CEO says mistakes there are often irreversible. That is an argument for caution and for buying his product.
LYLE HOTCHKISS: A startup finds the weaknesses in the big models, then sells the cure? Who exactly is funding the weaknesses?
PRUDENCE NUANCE: Researchers who built a benchmark would find weaknesses. Whether those are the weaknesses that matter, nobody checked.
GRETA FOOTNOTE: The article says the team built a benchmark and a gym, a simulation environment, to help models get better at DevOps. Lyle?
LYLE HOTCHKISS: Ban agents from servers forever! Actually, no, a gym sounds sensible. Give them the gym. Give them two.
PRUDENCE NUANCE: A simulation is safe because it isn't production. Is it also useful because it resembles it? The report doesn't say.
LYLE HOTCHKISS: By next Tuesday some agent somewhere will delete a database and file it under a learning experience.
GRETA FOOTNOTE: No agreement, as ever. Viewers, you decide in the poll.

## Pixels in Brief (PXL)
GRANT BRICKMAN: Quick round: an AI fashion app, a turbojet raise and a new space plane.
GRETA FOOTNOTE: Quick round. Meta launched Style Sketch, an AI app for trying on clothes, in Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. Fit not guaranteed.
GRETA FOOTNOTE: Aurora Labs is raising A$6 million to expand small 3D printed turbojet production. A modest sum for something that goes that fast.
GRETA FOOTNOTE: Virgin Galactic's Delta-class space plane Apeiron flew first on Thursday, under its carrier aircraft. Baby steps, with wings.

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AI-written satire. The text of the news items comes from the linked articles.