On Jan. 15, several news outlets reported that a New Zealand-based cryptocurrency exchange, Cryptopia, had gone offline after being hacked, with about $2.44 million worth of ether tokens and about $1.18 million worth of centrality tokens being transferred to unknown wallets on Jan. 13. Shortly after the hack, cryptocurrency exchange Binance froze and quarantined certain tokens sent to its exchange by the entity allegedly responsible. In related news, gate.io announced that $100,000 worth of cryptocurrency stolen from its exchange during the 51 percent attack on Ethereum Classic allegedly has been returned by the hacker who took it. Gate.io mentioned in its post that the hacker may have been a "white-hat" hacker seeking to demonstrate security risks.
Recent hard forks of Ethereum Nowa (ETN) and Ethereum Classic Vision (ETCV) have reportedly been tarnished by malware that appropriates the private keys of users trying to redeem their forked coins. Meanwhile, malware posing as a movie file on popular torrenting site The Pirate Bay reportedly has been found to trigger a chain of nefarious activities that include cryptocurrency thefts. Additionally, a recent report has highlighted vulnerabilities in numerous "cold storage" cryptocurrency wallets, including Trezor One, Ledger Nano S and Ledger Blue. The report, titled "wallet.fail," outlined research into the vulnerabilities of popular hardware wallets, which are typically considered more secure than wallets hosted online.
A recent rash of ransomware attacks known as the Ryuk ransomware, estimated to have earned hackers $2.5 million in Bitcoin, likely came from Russian cybercriminal activity rather than state-sponsored North Korean actors, crypto-focused news site Hard Fork reported on January 14. According to a recent report from Zerohedge, Russia is preparing to make major investments in bitcoin as part of a larger trend in which the country has been liquidating its U.S. Treasury holdings and investing in other foreign currencies and commodities like gold. One source has claimed that Russia intends to purchase as much as $10 billion in bitcoin, beginning as early as February. Russian government officials have refuted this claim.
For more information, please check out the following links:
- New Zealand Crypto Exchange Cryptopia Goes Offline Citing Hack
- NZ Exchange Cryptopia Reports Hack With ‘Significant Losses’
- Binance Freezes 'Some' Tokens Stolen From Cryptopia: CEO CZ
- io Got Back 100k USD Value Of ETC From The ETC 51% Attacker
- Two Alleged Ethereum 'Scam Forks' Appropriating Users' Private Keys, Report Finds
- Fake Movie File Infects PC to Steal Cryptocurrency, Poison Google Results
- Cryptocurrency Wallet Hacks Spark Dustup
- Research Suggests Russian-Based Hackers Behind Ryuk Ransomware's $2.5 Million Gains
- Russia Prepares To Buy Up To $10 Billion In Bitcoin To Evade US Sanctions
- Russia Denies Buying $10 Billion in Bitcoin, Telegraph Story Fake News
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