Ledger wallets: Singapore police tie S$3.5M losses to tampered devices
Singapore police link tampered Ledger hardware wallets sold in local shops to about S$3.5 million in losses, after Ledger found an LTE implant earlier.
SECURITY & HACKSNEWS
Lukas Brenner
10/29/20261 min read
The Singapore Police Force has warned that some Ledger hardware wallets sold through local retail shops were physically modified to steal funds, linking the devices to about S$3.5 million in losses. The advisory, issued on October 28, covers at least two cases reported since September 10. Unchained converted the total to roughly $2.7 million.
According to police, added hardware components in the affected wallets could capture users' recovery phrases or private keys, letting outsiders move funds without the owners noticing. The advisory did not name stores, wallet models or suspects. Police said they were in contact with Ledger, which is reviewing the cases.
Follow-up to the CryptoBilis implant
The warning builds on Ledger's own findings earlier in October. On October 13, the company said its Donjon security team had found an unauthorized implant in a device bought from Southeast Asian reseller CryptoBilis. The component read the 24-word recovery phrase shown during setup and sent it out over an LTE cellular link, working apart from the device's Secure Element and without changes to its operating system, crypto.news reported.
Ledger then asked resellers in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam and Hong Kong to pause sales and shipments. In a later blog post it called the episode a localized distribution attack rather than a systemic supply chain failure, and said its own systems and direct sales channels were not involved in the confirmed cases. The Straits Times reported that affected units were found at shops at Changi Airport and VivoCity.
Blockchain analysts have previously put losses tied to compromised wallets at more than $86 million, a figure Ledger said it could not verify.
Police advised anyone with a suspect device to stop using it, contact the manufacturer through official channels and move remaining funds to a new wallet with a fresh recovery phrase. The case is a reminder that hardware wallets are only as safe as the route by which they reach the buyer, and that buying directly from the manufacturer remains the safer option.
Source: Singapore Police Force, Unchained, crypto.news, The Straits Times