Cryptocurrency theft, a future “mass sport” for hackers

Cryptocurrency scams and scams jumped 600

This year, billions of cryptocurrency assets have been stolen from trading platforms. The “blows” of more than 10 million euros are becoming legion. Between vulnerabilities, philosophical principles of platforms, easy money and difficulties for law enforcement, the future of hacking turns resolutely towards cryptos.

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[EN VIDÉO] How does cryptocurrency work?
Like Bitcoin, today there are more than 6,000 cryptocurrencies in the world. These currencies are based on blockchain technology.

With cryptocurrencies, you should always keep in mind that thesilver that we devote to it may be lost. In addition to the sudden loss of value that the cryptos, there is also piracy. So, this year, in the twenty biggest cryptocurrency hacks, in six cases, hackers stole more than $ 100 million according to NBC News. However, this is precisely the mishap that happened to the Bitmart exchange platform in early December.

The hackers had the heavy click of getting their hands on nearly $ 200 million in digital assets. A hack that caused the shutdown of the service for three days in order to secure the platform. While it is not clear how hackers got into the servers, the method of “laundering” the crypto and recovering the funds is still the same. Hackers exploit an aggregator exchange to convert the different cryptos.

Almost old-fashioned heist

It was 1inch for this “heist”. Then, they use services that mix the cryptos and “anonymize” them to make them almost untraceable. In this case, it is Tornado Cash. Yes, it is indeed necessary to launder cryptos because, contrary to legend, they are not as anonymous as they seem.

If hackers prefer to attack crypto platforms than banks, it is because it is much more profitable and especially that many crypto platforms aim to escape government regulations. The authorities can therefore not do much to help the victims of these scams, especially internationally. And then, we must remember that the philosophy of cryptocurrencies is precisely driven by a desire to avoid going through banks, as well as mass surveillance authorities.

Invest the money you don’t need

When they are hacked, the platforms do not necessarily collaborate with the police when they have been victims. These same platforms, especially when they are just starting out, also have reduced staffing capacities. For once, despite the level of protection of cryptos, the cybersecurity of the platform is often problematic due to the presence of vulnerabilities. The big exchanges can take the blow with an emergency fund that allows them to compensate customers if they are hacked, but not all of them and in this situation the customer definitely has everything. lost.

There remains the negotiation with the pirates. Like Futura recounted it, it was the happy outcome of the Poly Network hack. The platform had been stolen $ 600 million in cryptocurrency. Poly Network officials first thanked the hacker (s) for updating their security breaches and the company was eventually reimbursed.

On the side of the police, according to Europol’s own admission, the investigation process to find the culprits is rather slow. In any case, much more than the rhythm of the attacks. Investigations are extremely time-consuming and the organization recalls that the more hackers are their loot and the more they have the means to multiply sophisticated attacks. It is for this reason that, for cryptocurrencies, it is customary to remind those concerned that you should only invest money that you can afford to lose.

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