The digital currency industry is facing tough times now. Increase in deceptive activities and rising awareness among criminals is plaguing the digital asset industry. Research is being undertaken by Group-IB, a global company specializing in the prevention of cyber-attacks that also develops information safety solutions. Their current research says there has been a 369% increase in the hacking of accounts on crypto exchanges. Additionally, there has been compromise of at least 720 accounts across every key exchange.

Cyber Attacks On Three Top Countries

The top 3 countries of cyber attacks are the US, China, and Russia. One-third of the victims belong to the US the report says. Group-IB data says it found 50 active botnets controlled remotely by cyber-criminals. The criminals took the assistance of these networks to launch attacks on exchanges and users.

The data from Group-IB found 50 active botnets used by cybercriminals to launch attacks on both users as well as exchanges. Over 55% of the malicious support is coming from the US, while the Netherlands is responsible for 21.5%. It further adds that 4.3% of hackers’ tools are found in Russia whereas 3.2% in Ukraine.

Mode Of Hacking

Hackers adopt bank attacking tools to hijack crypto exchanges as well as wallets, says Group-IB data.

In 2016, CoinDash, a startup in Israel, put a sudden stop to its offerings. This happened because a hacker changed the address of the Ethereum. CoinDash uses this address to solicit funds. A hacker stole $17 million worth of currency thereby bringing a halt to the functioning of the company.

Verge (XVG) had to face a second hacking setback this year in May. The attacker found a glitch in the technology of the company whereby mining of multiple blocks was virtually easy. By means of this setback, he stole more than 35 million XVG (worth $1.7 million). Verge had to wash its hands off 250,000 XVG the previous month whereby the hacker used the same tactics.

Where Lies The Issue

Based on the reports of Group-IB, one of the major reasons for the increase in attacks is not using unique passwords. Both the exchanges and the users misjudge the cyber-criminals capacities and ignore information safety. The exchanges and also the users fail to use two-factor verification. The report further says that they ignore fundamental safety rules like using complex unique passwords.