A study that studies the leakage of data from the Crypto stock exchanges reveals that Americans are the main target of Crypto hacks.
The study was conducted by Group-IB, a Russian computer forensics, and information security firm, which reveals its findings in a report entitled "2018 Cryptocurrency Exchanges-User Accounts Leaks Analysis".
The company revealed that in 2017 the number of "compromised login data" increased by 369% compared to 2016, while only in January 2018 had 212 entry data leaks, representing an increase of 689% in 2017
The report confirms that excitement alongside Crypto is an important factor in increasing incidents "against the average monthly value of 2017". According to the survey, the three most attacked countries are the United States, Russia, and China. It also reveals that one in three victims was an American.
Crypto Exchanges
The report says crypto exchanges have suffered a series of hacks due to the complexity of the tools used. Hackers are now "adapting attack patterns" used by banks on the digital asset platform, making them very vulnerable.
Researchers say the Crypto exchanges have suffered cyber attacks that have resulted in financial losses of $ 80 million through "leakage" on stock exchanges. Group-IB reports that they have identified "at least 50 active botnets" responsible for data leakage and say that the hacker infrastructure is spreading around the world, with the majority being based in the US and the Netherlands. They call popular malware such as Pony Formgrabber - a software that works by extracting credentials and login data.
According to Group-IB, the compromised accounts used in the survey include users of popular exchanges such as Bithumb and CEX.io.
Critical interest in increasing hacking
There is a direct link between the growing interest in Crypto and the number of crypto hackers, the group-IB experts say. Towards the end of 2017, the second most popular topic in the global news was "Bitcoin", and the search query "How to buy" is in the Top 3 most searched Google searches.
Experts from Group-IB believe that the sudden interest in Bitcoin contributed to the increase of compromised accounts from December 2017 to January 2018. While exchanges like Binance were struggling to deal with registration, the focus was diverted to customers as information security was neglected.
The report points to the lack of dual-factor authentication (2FA) options on platforms and the use of basic passwords as reasons for hacking. Group-IB Special Projects Director Ruslan Yusufov, however, believes the industry should learn from its mistakes and do more to defend itself.
The increased fraudulent activity and the attention of the hacker groups to the crypto industry, the additional functionality of malware related to Crypto, as well as the significant sums of stolen funds, indicate that the industry is not ready to protect itself and its users.
Safety recommendations
Group-IB recommends using separate passwords for different exchanges and activating the 2FA option. The company also warns against using Wi-Fi to carry out exchange operations. On the other hand, Crypto are recommended to make 2FA mandatory for users, to conduct regular security audits, and to create more internal security awareness.
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