Bybit, a major cryptocurrency exchange, became the victim of what is being estimated as the largest crypto heist to date, as hackers stole nearly $1.5 billion in digital assets. On February 21st, 2025, Ben Zhou, Bybit’s chief executive, logged into his computer to approve a transaction, as the cryptocurrency exchange was to shift a major chunk of digital currency, Ether, from one account to another. However, as the New York Times reported, about 30 minutes after the transaction, Zhou received a phone call from the company’s chief financial officer who informed him that their system was hacked, adding that all the “Ethereum is gone.”
How did these cybercriminals carry out the biggest crypto heist in history? According to the FBI, at the time of approving the transaction, Zhou unintentionally gave control of the account to the cybercriminals. The hackers were able to penetrate Bybit by taking control of a publicly available system, called Safe, which was utilized by the company to safeguard a large amount of customer deposits. To carry out this astonishing breach, the hackers just took advantage of a simple flaw in Bybit’s security system.
This is what temptations try to do with us. They are like these hackers, constantly on the lookout to discover vulnerabilities in our spiritual life in order to steal something more valuable than money, the life of grace. The problem is that, like Bybit, we often fail to pay attention to the weak points of our spiritual life leaving the door open to the attacks of temptations, which often succeed in overcoming us.
One of the things that can help us to reinforce our security in our spiritual life is austerity. What is austerity? I will answer this question by quoting Blessed Manuel González.
“Austerity is, for example, having an abundance of power and authority and, outside of specific cases, not commanding others to do what one can do oneself; preferring to say please rather than to command by force, and doing so to avoid the danger of falling into despotism or tyranny.
Austerity is being rich and having the means to wear luxurious fabrics, enjoy exquisite dishes and drinks at the table, and indulge in entertainment and spectacles to the fullest, yet imposing moderation in dressing, eating, and entertaining oneself to avoid crossing into the forbidden zones of luxury, gluttony, drunkenness, dissipation, idleness, laziness, and sensuality.
Austerity is the habit of freely being content with less in order to avoid falling into the vice of slavery to excess. One might say that duty is the barrier that separates us from transgression, disorder, and sin, and austerity is the second barrier that places us further within duty and farther from evil.”
