Upbit, one of South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has faced a surge of hacking attempts in the first half of 2023, according to a report by its operating firm Dunamu and published by local Korean news media Yonhap News.
JUST IN: Crypto exchange Upbit targeted by hackers 159K times in H1: Report#crypto #cryptocurrency #news #bitcoin #nft #altcoins
— CEAN – Crypto & Business News (@cryptoceannews) October 9, 2023
The report, which was submitted to South Korean lawmaker Park Seong-jung, revealed that Upbit was targeted by hackers more than 159,000 times from January to June this year. This is a 117% increase from the same period in 2022 and a staggering 1800% increase from 2020.
Despite All the Attacks, Upbit Remained Strong
Upbit has not suffered any successful security breach since 2019, when it lost $42 million worth of cryptocurrency in a hack. The exchange has taken various measures to prevent recurrence, such as increasing the proportion of funds stored in cold wallets to 70% and enhancing the security of hot wallets.
Cold wallets are offline storage devices that are less vulnerable to hacking than hot wallets, which are online accounts that allow users to access and trade their funds.
The exchange said that this feature can help detect and prevent hacking attempts. However, Upbit is not immune to other types of incidents. In late September, the exchange had to suspend its Aptos token services after a fake token called “ClaimAPTGift.com” was distributed to 400,000 Aptos wallets.
The company said that it was investigating the matter and would compensate the affected users. Park Seong-jung, who requested the report from Dunamu, urged the government and the industry to work together to ensure the safety and benefits of cryptocurrency.
He said that the Ministry of Science and ICT should conduct large-scale mock tests and audits on the information security conditions of virtual asset exchanges, which are frequent targets of cyberattacks.
The lawmaker also said that the role of the ministry in managing and supervising the exchanges is ambiguous and needs to be clarified. He added that the public should be educated and aware of the risks and opportunities of cryptocurrency.
