Hackers in High Demand

Users of cryptocurrency trading platforms in the United States, Russia and China have been the most common victims of cyberattacks, according to a new study conducted by Russian cybersecurity experts. They have found that between 2016-2017, cases in which private data of people using crypto exchanges was compromised have increased almost 5-fold, or by 369%.

The record was set in January 2018 when the number of incidents rose by close to 700% in comparison with the monthly average from 2017, the cyber-forensic company Group-IB said in a recently released report. Its specialists believe the vast majority of breaches are due to the careless attitude of customers towards their own security.

According to Ruslan Yusufov, project manager at Group-IB, the wave of scams, the increased attention from hacker groups, the modification of malware programs, and the significant amounts of stolen funds indicate that the crypto industry is not yet ready to protect itself and its users. His company also notes that the infrastructure used by cybercriminals is mainly based in the US (56.1%), the Netherlands (21.5%), Ukraine (4.3%), and Russia (3.2%).

The demand for services only hackers can provide significantly exceeds the supply, according to another study in the field. Experts from a company called Positive Technologies have tried to gauge the market by analyzing a number of websites offering these “specialized services.” They found that the malware programs created by hackers were three times less than the orders.

The authors of the study have analyzed more than 10,000 ads offering or seeking services related to the development of malicious software which have been published by 25 English and Russian language websites on the darknet, Vedomosti reports. Talking about the demand, in 32% of the cases, customers were looking for help in cracking an email, and 6% for hacking a social media account. An equal number of hackers, 33%, have responded to both types of requests.