Has the cryptocurrency exchange which you typically trade on already been hacked? If not yet, this is highly possible. Centralized exchanges, which Vitalik Buterin wished would “burn in hell,” can manipulate users' funds and face regular attacks, while decentralized ones seem to have not yet found a balanced compromise between security and usability. At the same time, the experience of traditional banks in ensuring cybersecurity is still not in demand within the crypto industry, which leads to users’ millions of dollars theft or data breach, like in an incident happened to Atlas Quantum account owners on Aug. 25. The top …

The Division of Consumer and Business Education of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published an article August 21 titled “How to avoid a Bitcoin blackmail scam.” The FTC’s letter focuses on consumer protection, in what it calls a “new scam targeting men,” warning about blackmailing scams demanding payments in Bitcoin (BTC). The brief letter states: “Here’s how it works. Scammers have been sending letters to men, demanding payments using [B]itcoin in exchange for keeping quiet about alleged affairs. The letter also explains how to use [B]itcoin to make the payment.” Among the “classic signs” of blackmailing, the FTC lists …

Chinese police have arrested three “highly experienced” hackers suspected of stealing up to 600 million yuan (around $87.3 million) in crypto, local news outlet Xinhua reported August 18. The alarm was reportedly first raised by an individual identified by the surname Zhang, who is said to have first filed his complaint March 30 with local police in the northwestern city of Xi’an. The victim claimed that his computer had been hacked, resulting in the theft of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and other crypto holdings worth up to 100 million yuan ($14.5 million). Initial investigations by a dedicated police task force …

A recent report from Russia-based antivirus and cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Labs states that in the second quarter of 2018, cybercriminals stole over $2.3 million dollars via crypto scams. The report, entitled “Spam and phishing in Q2 2018,” notes so-called “crypto giveaways” as a pervasive example of phishing, wherein cybercriminals dupe individuals into giving up sensitive information as part of a too-good-to-be-true promotion giving away popular cryptocurrencies. In these crypto phishing scams, unsuspecting individuals are fooled into voluntarily giving up important information on convincing but malicious copies of popular crypto wallets and markets. Kasperksy states that cybercrooks also pose as new …

In the early July, it was reported that Bleeping Computer detected suspicious activity targeted at defrauding 2.3 million Bitcoin wallets, which they found to be under threat of being hacked. The attackers used malware — known as “clipboard hijackers” — which operates in the clipboard and can potentially replace the copied wallet address with one of the attackers. The threat of hacking attacks of this type has been predicted by Kaspersky Lab as early as November of last year, and they did not take long to become reality. For the time being, this is one of the most widespread types …

South Korea’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb is scrambling to protect users funds after a large scale hack. Initial reports from the Yonhap new agency indicate that over $30 million worth of cryptocurrencies were stolen during a cyber attack on June 19. Cointelegraph Japan was informed that the hot wallet was hacked during the night and cryptocurrency stolen included Ripple. Once the exchange was made aware of the attack, it froze deposit and withdrawal services. Bithumb has already assured customers affected by the hack will be compensated for their losses. “We checked that some of cryptocurrencies valued about $30 million was …

Bitcoin is just the first app we are using when dealing with the Blockchain. Soon we will see more ways people can squeeze the most out of Blockchain. Back in the 90s when the Internet was first becoming profit-oriented, no one would possibly have imagined that the Internet would breed Facebook, Google, Uber, online streaming, etc. This is where we are with the Blockchain now. There exists a whole world of opportunities out there. In order to realize that potential, it’s critical that law enforcement has the ability to chase down the individuals who use the Blockchain for unrighteous things. …

According to the FBI IC3 report, they’ve received around 2600 cybercrime complaints including ransomware-related issues. The annual review of cybersecurity threats coming from the law enforcement agency’s, Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), outlines a range of statistics including number of submission complaints received regarding the ransomware. It also includes a breakdown per state. Increasing Bitcoin-related crimes Ransomware is type of a malicious tool that infects one's personal computer and encrypts its data disabling the user from navigating files such as the user's documents. It stops you from using your computer and holds your PC files as “ransom”. A payment is …

Some mainstream media put the blame for the latest WannaCry cyber attack on Bitcoin, thoughtlessly copy-pasting the statements that the cryptocurrency is a convenient tool for terrorists. In reality, the technologies behind Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies might very well become the next level security against future attacks. Ransomware Ransomware attacks of an unprecedented scale put hundreds of thousands of computers at risk. As Bitcoin and Blockchain take the limelight again, Blockchain may offer a viable solution. NSA tools and Windows vulnerability caused the largest cyber attack in history. While Bitcoin and Blockchain can easily be singled out as a scapegoat, …

Western secret agencies partnership known as the "Five Eyes" launched a surveillance unit called Network Tradecraft Advancement Team (NTAT) to spy on smartphone users as well as a major Chinese mobile web browser. As top secret document obtained by Edward Snowden has revealed, they planned to hijack data and insert malware into Samsung devices with Google apps. The documents obtained by Edward Snowden and published by CBC on May 21, 2015, revealed plans from as early as 2011 from major spy agencies to attempt and compromise Google and Samsung servers to spy on their mobile users as well as a …

The newly patched “Venom” vulnerability in virtualization software is “perfect” for any organization targeting bitcoin wallets, private keys and forum passwords, according to Robert Graham, chief executive officer of security firm Errata. Researchers first discovered the bug through the security firm CrowdStrike, which described Venom as a security vulnerability in the virtual floppy drive code used by computer virtualization platforms. They said: “This vulnerability may allow an attacker to escape from the confines of an affected virtual machine (VM) guest and potentially obtain code-execution access to the host.” “Absent mitigation, this VM escape could open access to the host system …

The Bitcoin Foundation Board has elected Bruce Fenton to the position of Executive Director; Kaspersky releases a decryption tool in the battle against ransomware and more top stories for April 14. Bitcoin Foundation Appoints Bruce Fenton as New Executive Director In a vote consisting of five ayes and one abstention, the Bitcoin Foundation Board has elected lifetime member Bruce Fenton to the position of Executive Director, replacing Patrick Murck. In an interview with Bitcoin Magazine, Fenton stated: “The first order of business will be both getting the most accurate picture of where we are [financially] and communicating with members and …