Confirmed implant of spy module: Ledger Flex purchased at Singapore airport linked to prior theft of over $86 million in assets

Odaily reports that former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpelès has publicly confirmed that a Ledger Flex purchased at Metapod in Singapore Changi Airport had a spy module implanted inside it. The device was bought by user Ben Yorke this summer and had never been used before being sent in for teardown due to suspicious scratches on its casing. Photos and videos of the teardown released by Karpelès show an additional circuit board and wiring hidden at the bottom of the device. It is a relatively new version of the implant, capable of eavesdropping on screen communications and other methods to steal users' seed phrases during setup. Previously, Ledger devices purchased through the Malaysian distributor CryptoBilis were also found to have been implanted, leading to the theft of over $86 million in assets. Devices purchased from official European distributors and in the Philippines have also been gradually discovered to show similar signs of implantation. The implants have progressively evolved from early hand-soldered modifications to more covert mass-produced circuit boards.