With cryptocurrency prices soaring, changing to ‘all-time high’ records most days, it appears hackers are turning their attention to larger targets

Bitfinex, one of bitcoins biggest exchanges, was recently hit with a variety of DDoS attacks for the second time this month.

The hackers destroyed Bitfinex’s infrastructure by creating thousands of new accounts, stealing US$70million worth of Bitcoin’s from the company’s bitcoin wallet, according to High-Tech Bridge.

Ilia Kolochenko, CEO of web security at company High-Tech Bridge, said: “Since the beginning of this year, bitcoin’s popularity has skyrocketed both among private and professional investors.

“However, bitcoin remains unregulated and therefore bears all the associated risks, such as high volatility and uncontrollable fluctuations. Cyber criminals will quite unlikely miss such an opportunity to get easy money.

‘Targeting exchanges to steal wallets’

“Depending on their skills and resources, Black Hats will target both bitcoin holders and major players, such as exchanges.

“In the past, user machines were mainly compromised and sold on the Dark Web to be used as zombies or proxies in other attacks, now they will be hacked to steal cryptocurrency and mine it afterwards.

“More advanced hacking groups would rather target exchanges to steal thousands of wallets at once or even to influence bitcoin exchange rate.

“A carefully planned global operation against all major bitcoin resources and fake news can easily cause market panic and push bitcoin price to US$0.”

New users have been temporarily disabled from accessing the site in a bid to defend against the attackers.

Written by Leah Alger