In January 2018, Japanese exchange Coincheck was hacked, resulting in the loss of $530 million worth of New Economy Movement (NEM) tokens. Until recently, it was believed that hackers from North Korea were behind this massive attack.
However, according to the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun, the attack was organized by Russian hackers.
Russian hackers behind attack on Coincheck platform
The Japanese newspaper, as we mentioned above, reports that the perpetrators of the attack were Russian hackers. This conclusion was reached after examining the personal computer of a Coincheck employee. Malware associated with Russian hackers was found on the computer.
The attack was carried out as follows: hackers sent emails to employees. These emails contained viruses such as Mokes and Netwire, which installed malware on the employees' computers. Through these viruses, the hackers took control of the infected computers. Thus, they gained access to Coincheck's private keys and carried out the big theft.
The Mokes virus was first detected in June 2011 and is very commonly used by Russian hackers. Netwire has been in use for about 12 years.
The Coincheck platform has recently recovered and is now operating under a cryptocurrency license, unlike the previous year when the attack occurred. At the time, Coincheck was waiting for the license and was not prepared to deal with such an attack.
The exchange platform stored its customers' funds in a hot wallet and did not use the appropriate technology that could have prevented the attack.
According to the above, we could say that the hackers went to plunder a fortress, which had no defenses. If the attackers were indeed the Russians, then we are talking about a very easy job. Russian hackers have successfully carried out much more difficult attacks in the past.
Crypto Exchange Platforms
Crypto exchange platforms have been targeted by hackers in recent years, resulting in the loss of billions of dollars.
In the first quarter of 2019 alone, $1.2 billion worth of cryptocurrencies were stolen
In 2018, $1.7 billion was stolen. This means that if this pace of attacks continues, 2019 could be a record year for cryptocurrency theft.
