The South Korean Ministry of Science and Technology (MIC) has launched an investigation into the theft of $30 mln from the world’s sixth largest crypto exchange Bithumb, Yonhap News reports Wednesday, June 20. Bithumb, which is the leading crypto exchange in South Korea, temporarily suspended all deposits and payments on the exchange as soon as it had detected the theft. According to Yonhap, the Ministry has said that as soon as it reported the Bithumb hack, the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) joined an urgent investigation into the case. The Ministry now plans to analyze the causes of the …

Hackers have stolen cryptocurrencies worth $30 million from South Korea's leading virtual currency exchange Bithumb, Cointelegraph Japan reported June 19. As a result all deposits and payments have been temporarily suspended. *All deposit and withdrawal service will be stopped to make sure the security. We will keep notice you of the restart of the service. We apologize for your inconvenience and thanks for your understanding. — Bithumb (@BithumbOfficial) June 20, 2018 The exchange states it will compensate users affected by the hack, and that all assets are being moved to a cold wallet: “[Notice for the suspension of all deposit …

About $20 mln worth of Ethereum have reportedly been stolen by a group of hackers, exploiting misconfigured Ethereum clients, according to a Bleeping Computer article published June 11. The hackers were able access applications using the Ethereum software which configured their interface to expose a Remote Procedure Call (RPC). The RPC interface allows third parties to query, interact with, and retrieve data from the Ethereum-based service, meaning those with access could get private keys, see the owner’s personal information, and even move funds. While most apps disable this interface by default, and even when it is turned on, it is …

A Brazilian researcher has calculated that it could take just $55 mln to hack a major cryptocurrency network for $1bln profit in new findings, TNW reports Friday, May 22. Husam Abboud of FECAP University in São Paulo used the example of Ethereum Classic (ETC) to demonstrate the hackability of cryptocurrency networks using Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithms. “We can safely estimate The Cost of a 51% attack on Ethereum Classic today to be between 55 to 85 million [USD] (averaged $70 million),” Abboud reported. The findings seemingly contradict previously-held assumptions that conducting network attacks - successful 51% attacks to control hashpower - …

Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Verge (XVG) has been the victim of another hack, in which 35 mln XVG were stolen over a period of a few hours, The Next Web reported yesterday, May 22. Verge tweeted that their mining pools were under a DDOS attack on May 21, noting that they were working to resolve it. it appears some mining pools are under ddos attack, and we are experiencing a delay in our blocks, we are working to resolve this. — vergecurrency (@vergecurrency) May 22, 2018 XVG is currently down by a little over 14 percent over a 24 hour period to …

The official Twitter account of Vertcoin, a peer-to-peer digital currency and software project, was compromised earlier today in an attempt to carry out a Bitcoin (BTC) scam. On May 1, the Vertcoin Twitter account posted an announcement of a cryptocurrency giveaway in celebration of Vertcoin’s success. The tweet promised to transfer 10 BTC to the winner, which would be announced on May 3. To enter the giveaway, the fraudsters asked users to send 0.005 BTC to an address they cited in the post: Hey, everyone! Vertcoin and staff are pleased to announce that we’re doing a 10 BTC giveaway to …

While hacks and thefts from cryptocurrency exchanges are nothing new, there have been some notable cases, as well as some smaller and less publicised ones. However, it is not always the eye-watering figures that are stolen that draw headlines - sometimes it is the saga that unfolds after the theft. This has been the case of the Feb. 8 hack of Italian exchange, BitGrail. The story started to pick up attention as Nano, which was what RailBlocks was rebranded to in January, were drawn into the ruckus with fingers being pointed at their Blockchain protocol. In the end, $150 mln …

North Korean hackers are suspected in a cyberattack on Turkey’s financial sector, as stated in a report released by McAfee March 8. The McAfee Advanced Threat Research team identified an attempt by the hacking group Hidden Cobra to breach the security of Turkish government-backed financial institutions on March 2 and 3. While McAfee policy is to not officially identify cyber groups from nation-states as culprits, they mention in the report that the code of the malware in question closely resembles code used by a hacking operative associated with North Korea. The hackers used modified malware known as a “Bankshot” which …

Cointelegraph talked to Francesco Firano, CEO of BitGrail, the Italian exchange apparently hit by a cyber attack that would have caused the loss of a considerable amount of Nano tokens (formerly known as Raiblocks). BitGrail froze trading on Thursday, Feb. 8. The exchange stated that 17 mln Nano had been stolen in the hack, an amount worth about $187 mln at the time the losses were discovered. The statements of the developers of Nano on the matter, mixed with the understandable anger of users affected by the theft and the dissemination of confusing information, have generated a climate of strong …

Since its first big spike in growth and subsequent plummet with the Mt. Gox hack, Bitcoin has been labeled a bubble waiting to burst. People have likened its growth to many different bubbles, most notably the dotcom boom in the 1990s. However, the truth of the matter is that Bitcoin keeps breaking barriers as it reached another all time high this week. In fact, a closer inspection of the growth, and the eventual burst of the associated bubbles shows that Bitcoin is so far off the charts that it looks like an absolute outlier. An age of digital currencies This …

Ethereum was the darling of cryptocurrencies for the first half of the year but has fallen on hard times. Multiple hacks and huge losses, as well as the announcement of security regulation by the SEC, have left the system a bit undervalued according to some analysts. Unhindered ETHWaterloo, however, continues to market itself as the largest Ethereum hackathon in the world. Set to kick off in October of this year, the gathering will include a chance for developers to work alongside some of the biggest names in the Ethereum world. Speakers at the event include Vitalik Buterin, Joseph Lubin, Jeff …

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, …