In the first half of 2023, Upbit, a prominent South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, experienced a staggering 159,000+ hacking attempts, as revealed by its operating company, Dunamu.
Dunamu reported these figures to Representative Park Seong-jung of the People Power Party in South Korea, according to an October 9 report by Yonhap News Agency, a South Korea-based news outlet. Compared to the first half of 2022, these attacks have surged by 117%, and astonishingly, they represent an 1,800% increase from the first half of 2020.
Upbit ranks as one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea, boasting a 24-hour trading volume approximately around $1.2 billion, based on data from CoinGecko. It is listed amongst other major exchanges like Bithumb, Coinone, and Gopax.
In response to the intense wave of hacking attempts and with the aim to amplify its security infrastructure, Dunamu has elevated the percentage of funds Upbit secures in cold wallets to 70%. Additionally, enhanced security protocols have been implemented for funds maintained in hot wallets, which are frequently more susceptible to hacks than cold wallets due to their online storage of private keys.
Despite a significant $50 million exploit in 2019, Upbit has maintained a clean security record since, with no breaches, as affirmed by a spokesperson from Dunamu to Yonhap. However, Upbit did encounter an issue in late September, having to suspend services for Aptos token when the platform failed to identify a counterfeit token, “ClaimAPTGift.com,” which infiltrated 400,000 Aptos wallets.
Seong-jung, acknowledging the industry-wide surge in cryptocurrency hacks, urged the South Korean government for enhanced action. He stressed, “The Ministry of Science and Technology must conduct large-scale whitewashing mock tests and examine information security conditions to prepare for cyber attacks against virtual asset exchanges, which are frequently targeted by hacking attempts.”
He further added a critique of the Ministry of Science and ICT, expressing, “The role of the Ministry of Science and ICT in managing and supervising them is ambiguous.”
While Upbit has not provided an immediate response to inquiries from Cointelegraph, the challenges faced by crypto exchanges persist globally, with several platforms experiencing notable attacks in September alone. Hong Kong-based exchange CoinEx, for instance, underwent a $70 million hack after a compromise of one of its private keys, assuring affected users of compensation for their lost funds. Concurrently, Huobi Global’s HTX exchange suffered a loss of $7.9 million in a September 24 exploit.
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