NOW THE CRYPTO HACK STORY!
The world is completely in the pain businesses have been facing out of ransomware attacks. The attacks are not abating by any standards. On the contrary it is becoming more and more complex and specialised. The approach, response and success of law enforcement and the investigative agencies in ransomware investigation are nothing to boast of. The Singapore survey clearly shows that the only choice left to the ones under stress of ransomware attack is to pay. While ransomware is hogging the limelight, the current progressing trend of Crypto Hacks cannot be underplayed.
Due emphasis of Crypto Hacks is the need of the hour, otherwise it also shows a trend of spiraling out of control. As per a recent report North Korean hackers stole $1.3 billion of crypto in 2024. In all a total of $2.2 billion of cryptocurrencies were stolen in the last calendar year, of which more than half of it was accounted for by the North Korean hackers. The total haul for them has been $1.3 billion of cryptocurrencies, as stated, which is double of the value of hacks in 2023. Modus operandi of some of the thefts appear to be linked to North Korean hackers posing as remote IT workers to gain entry into crypto and other technology firms.
All this is happening as the incumbent US President is seen as crypto friendly and the price of bitcoin doubled in 2024. Though the total amount of cryptocurrency stolen increased by 21% in 2024 over 2023, it was still below the levels recorded in 2021 and 2022. Given this backdrop there is a general feeling that there is an urgent need for this industry to address an increasingly complex and evolving threat landscape. What has been the major cause of compromise? It has been the compromised private keys. Private keys, for the uninitiated, are used to control access to users’ assets on crypto platforms.
The fact is that centralised exchanges manage substantial amounts of user funds, making the impact of compromised keys devastating. Most significant attacks of 2024 are $300m in Bitcoin from Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, DMM Bitcoin, and also the loss of $235m from WazirX, an India-based crypto exchange. The nature of haul harvested by the North Korean hackers has geo-political ramifications too. As per the US govt, the North Korean regime resorts to crypto thefts and other forms of cyber crime to circumvent international sanctions and raise money. It is also said that this nature of funneling money is used to fund Pyongyang’s weapons programmes.
FREQUENT RANSOMWARE ATTACKS AND CRYPTO HACKS FLAG IT AS A CYBER EXISTENTIAL ISSUE TO BE RESOLVED AT THE EARLIEST.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.