Cybersecurity start-up CipherTrace has revealed that US$761million has been laundered from cryptocurrency exchanges since the start of 2018.
The firm found that US$266million worth of cryptocurrency was stolen last year, showing that the amount stolen this year is already three times the amount.
‘Highly-sophisticated nationwide hacks’
Ilia Kolochenko, CEO of High-Tech Bridge, commented: “Cybercriminals follow easy money, and many cryptocurrency owners are the perfect victims. They are virtually unable to protect either themselves or their digital assets, being susceptible even to relatively simple phishing attacks.
“Law enforcement is frequently uninterested in investigating and prosecuting petty offences with digital coins theft, as they are already underwater with highly-sophisticated nationwide hacks. While crypto startups are virtually ignorant even to the fundamentals of cybersecurity, spending all their efforts and resources to survive on extremely volatile and highly-competitive market.”
Crypto assets to remain vigilant!
The dip in the price of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin has caused a large number of cryptocurrency hacks to take place in the recent months. South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb was a particular target, who admitted to US$31milllion of cryptocurrency being stolen from the firm, as well as IOTA cryptocurrency who suffered loses of US$4million.
“We can almost certainly expect a further proliferation of security incidents related to cryptocurrencies. Attackers have now established impressive infrastructure purposely tailored for large-scale theft and scams with digital coins,” added Kolochenko.
He also noted that owners of crypto assets should remain extremely vigilant, maintain all their devices and installed software, install at least a free antivirus from a reputable vendor, use two-factor authentication, and never entrust their wallets to any third-parties.
Written by Leah Alger
