Ledger Exec: AI, Not Hardware Wallets, Is the Problem

A Ledger executive says hardware wallets aren't the problem; AI attackers are. Ian Rogers, Ledger's Chief Human Agency Officer, states the recent $116 million Coldcard hack shows what AI can do to systems with weak randomness. The Coldcard vulnerability came from a 2021 firmware bug. It used a software pseudorandom number generator for seed creation instead of the device's hardware chip. This created a small enough address space for an AI-powered attacker to find private keys. Over 1,000 Bitcoin were drained in 41 minutes. Ledger avoids this by generating entropy entirely in hardware, using a certified secure chip. Rogers highlights three ways AI changes the threat landscape. First, AI gives attackers more power to find vulnerabilities. Second, AI-assisted development means more code ships faster, increasing attack surfaces. Third, enterprises are deploying AI agents with access to internal secrets. Rogers sees the Coldcard exploit as an early sign of a wider AI-era security issue. The bottom line: AI is changing how vulnerabilities are exploited, making robust security measures more critical than ever.