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Hackers Steal $664 Million From Cryptocurrency Investors in Six Months – DefiLlama
According to data from DefiLlama, cryptocurrency investors lost $664 million to hackers in the first half of the year, up more than 50 percent from the same period last year.
The largest decentralized finance aggregator said that most of these losses were due to phishing attacks and compromised private keys.
He stressed that cryptocurrency hackers are often experienced criminals working for cybercrime organizations, such as the North Korean state-sponsored Lazarus Group, which is suspected of stealing billions of dollars in cryptocurrency.
DefiLlama said that the most powerful hacking tools are not usually available to the Internet’s army of amateur hackers.
However, experts are raising concerns about the growing threat of open-source infostealers, malicious software designed to steal sensitive financial information from victims’ computers.
These infostealers target crypto wallet passwords, private keys, and other sensitive data.
This year, compromised private keys have led to some of the largest cryptocurrency hacks, including the theft of $305 million from the Bitcoin exchange DMM.
Blockchain expert and team leader at SIRFITECH, Adewale Kayode, told The PUNCH that Nigeria has become a hub for cryptocurrency scams, ranking second globally in cryptocurrency adoption, behind only India.
Kayode attributed the high adoption rate to the country’s economic hardship, with many individuals seeking alternative means to supplement their income.
However, he said, this has created fertile ground for scammers, resulting in losses of as much as $8 million due to cryptocurrency scams in Nigeria alone in the last six months.
Globally, cryptocurrency scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated, with scammers using multi-level marketing scams, cryptocurrency fraud, Ponzi schemes, fake ICOs, and phishing attacks to trick victims.
The cyber expert warned that scammers continue to innovate, using tactics such as paid substitution attacks to avoid detection.
Kayode stressed the urgent need for regulatory measures to counter the growing trend of cryptocurrency scams, stressing that regulation is crucial to protecting individuals and ensuring the integrity of the cryptocurrency market.
According to a recent report by researchers at Proofpoint, cybercriminals are using various tactics to target cryptocurrencies, causing huge financial losses.
The report, titled “How Cybercriminals Are Targeting Cryptocurrencies,” highlighted two primary goals of cyber threat actors: traditional fraud and the targeting of decentralized financial organizations.
Traditional fraud tactics involve business email compromise attacks, targeting individuals and causing financial losses.
Meanwhile, attacks on DeFi organizations aim to compromise cryptocurrency storage and transactions, potentially leading to follow-on attacks.
“While most attacks require basic knowledge of how cryptocurrency transfers and wallets work, they do not require sophisticated tools to succeed,” the researchers said.