America No.1 in Cryptocurrency Crimes

By Dmitriy

BTC Wires: A report published by an international cyber – security firm threw light on the increasing incidences of crypto crimes in the United States of America. The crimes, supposedly, are the results of weak security settings and the inadequacy of the two factor authentication (2FA) systems.  

Group IB, an international cybersecurity firm found out that the number of cryptocurrency accounts under threat has seen a shocking increase of 369% since 2017. Other disturbing figures mentioned in the report included the average number of accounts, prone to hacking or other illegal activities, which was rounded off to 720. This, however, does not come across as an absolute surprise as almost every crypto exchange got hacked publicly last year.

Apart from reporting the above mentioned figures, the group also pointed out the fact that the maximum crimes took place in the US. The crime toll jumped over to a massive 689% as monthly average for January, as it was the time when the crypto market saw a significant upsurge. The period saw 19 crypto exchanges being attacked resulting into a loss of over $80 million. The United States and the Netherlands are two countries where the dangerous traffic is possibly coming from.

The major reason on the surface could be the botnets being offered to new members with disguised malware. However, the problem runs deep as the security firm believes that lack of strong passwords for crypto accounts is more concerning. The traders, even during mining could be jeopardizing their accounts if their passwords are weak. It is also worth noting that one out of every five accounts of those 720 compromised accounts has a password with less than eight characters.

Ruslan Yusufov, director at Group IB expressed his concern saying, “Increased fraudulent activity and attention of hacker groups to the crypto-industry, additional functions of malicious software related to cryptocurrencies, as well as the significant amounts of already stolen funds signals that the industry is not ready to defend itself and protect its users.”

The cryptocurrency market is in the eyes of the hackers, now more than ever. The crypto investors can protect their accounts if they act a little smart and use complex passwords. To ensure higher security, 2FA systems must be adopted.