About $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency had been obtained via illicit means in 2018, according to research published by crypto analytics company CipherTrace on Jan. 29. Of that $1.7 billion, over $950 million was stolen from crypto exchanges, representing a 3.6 times increase over 2017. On the other hand, at least $725 million was lost in 2018 to scams such as ponzi schemes, exit schemes and fraudulent initial coin offerings (ICOs). CipherTrace also listed what the company believes to be the top ten cryptocurrency threats: the highest is SIM swapping, which is a kind of identity theft involving taking control over …

Francesco Firano, the owner and founder of hacked Italian cryptocurrency exchange BitGrail, has been sentenced to return as much of the assets to his customers as possible. Scans of the court decision were released by the Bit Grail Victims Group (BGVG) on Medium on Jan. 28. The Italian Bankruptcy Court published the sentence on Jan. 21. A post by the BGVG published the same day as the court sentence explains that “the court concluded that both Bitgrail and Mr. Firano, personally, be declared bankrupt, authorizing seizures of many of Mr. Firano’s personal assets.” According to the post the Italian authorities …

A report outlined by blockchain analytics company Chainalysis has revealed that two hacker groups have reportedly stolen $1 billion in cryptocurrency, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports on Jan. 28. According to the new report shared with the Wall Street Journal, the two entities — which Chainalysis calls Alpha and Beta — have received the majority of the money lost in cryptocurrency scams. Furthermore, the WSJ cites Philip Gradwell, the chief economist at Chainalysis, as saying that the two organizations are probably still active. However, the aforementioned article also quotes Chainalysis admitting that there is a chance its analysis is …

A link to a phishing LocalBitcoins clone website had been placed on the official LocalBitcoins forum, but the attack has since been stopped. A LocalBitcoins community manager warned of the attack on Reddit on Jan. 26. According to the post, an unidentified hacker or hacker group detected a security vulnerability in the LocalBitcoins forum and linked it to a phishing forum. Even before the official communication, a Reddit user warned in a post on the Bitcoin (BTC) subreddit: “When visiting the localbitcoins forum [...] users are prompted to log into their account, as if they have been logged out. This …

As much as $16 million worth of Ethereum (ETH) and ERC20 tokens were stolen in the recent hack of New Zealand exchange Cryptopia, according to an analysis from blockchain infrastructure firm Elementus, Jan. 20. Elementus’ findings and analysis were published under a week after Cryptopia first publicly announced its detection of the breach. As reported, the exchange had initially informed the public that the platform was undergoing unscheduled maintenance, before avowing that a hack incurring “significant”— but unspecified — losses had occurred. According to Elementus, data on the Ethereum public blockchain indicates that funds began to be siphoned from Cryptopia’s …

In what seems to be one of the first major security breaches of 2019, New Zealand-based digital assets exchange Cryptopia was allegedly hacked this week. The platform reported the incident via Twitter on Jan. 15, mentioning “significant losses.” While the incident has been confirmed by the local police, many crucial details — including the amount and titles of stolen tokens — remain undisclosed. Brief introduction to Cryptopia, an essential exchange for altcoins Cryptopia Limited, the company behind the self-titled exchange, was registered in July 2014, and the platform itself was launched later the same year. It is run by founders …

Three strains of crypto mining malware have topped the latest Global Threat Index from Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point, according to a press release published on Jan. 14. Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. is a security solution provider for governments and enterprises globally, with over 100,000 organizations reported to be currently using its security management system. As reported, stealth crypto mining attacks — also known as cryptojacking — work by installing malware that uses a computer’s processing power to mine for cryptocurrencies without the owner’s consent or knowledge. According to Check Point’s Global Threat Index for December 2018, the top …

South Africa’s national cricket organization briefly fell victim to scammers on Twitter and began offering a fake Bitcoin (BTC) lottery, Indian daily news outlet Indian Express reported on Jan. 14. Cricket South Africa (CSA), which has over 1 million followers, tweeted its alleged participation in the scheme in the early morning. Staff claimed the organization had begun a partnership with Luno, a United Kingdom-based cryptocurrency wallet, through which users could win a prize worth 20 BTC ($70,900). The now-deleted tweet included a Bitcoin address to which those wishing to be involved should send a 0.01 BTC, and was active for …

The Ethereum Classic 51 percent attacker has reportedly returned $100,000 to cryptocurrency exchange Gate.io, a post on the official exchange’s blog reports on Jan. 12. The company further noted that they tried contacting the attacker but didn’t get any reply until now, and that they do not know the reason why the funds have been returned. The exchange declared: “If the attacker didn't run it for profit, he might be a white hacker who wanted to remind people the risks in blockchain consensus and hashing power security.” A white hat hacker is a hacker with a strong professional ethic who …

Cryptocurrency mining malware is responsible for less of the supply of altcoin Monero (XMR) in circulation than previously thought, new research published Jan. 3 claims. A joint effort by researchers at King’s College London and Carlos III University in Madrid, Spain, the study analyzed huge swathes of malware over a twelve-year period. “In this paper, we conduct the largest measurement of crypto-mining malware to date, analyzing approximately 4.4 million malware samples (1 million malicious miners),” authors Sergio Pastrana and Guillermo Suarez-Tangil confirm. According to their calculations, Monero, which continues to be a favorite target for malicious mining operations, has an …

The Twitter account of a Belgian non-profit was evidently hacked and made into a fake affiliate account of United States crypto exchange Coinbase. The impersonating account posted what what appeared to be a scam giveaway promotion, allegedly celebrating Coinbase's user base growth in a tweet today, Jan. 9, that has since been deleted. Scammers had targeted the account of the Federation of Enterprises in Belgium (FEB), a non-profit organization that aims to promote the interests of Belgian businesses. After taking control of the FEB’s Twitter account, the scammers transformed the account to appear to be affiliated with Coinbase. The account’s …

White hat hackers have been awarded $878,000 in bug bounties this year, technology news website TheNextWeb reports on Dec. 30. Bug bounties are a type of competition in which companies that develop software invite hackers to break their software and responsibly disclose the vulnerabilities, so they are able to fix them before they are exploited. According to TheNextWeb, hackers earned $534,500 on HackerOne, a bug bounty platform connecting companies with hackers just from Block.one, the company which stands behind EOS. In fact, Block.one is reportedly responsible for 60 percent of all the bounties handed in this year. Major cryptocurrency exchange …