Digital Asset Outlook 2022
Theme 12. Cybersecurity
12.2 Key categories of cyberattacks related to cryptocurrency Cyberattackers are likely to take advantage of the digital asset transaction system vulnerabilities to commit crimes. Here are the different types of vulnerabilities that attackers and some specific examples frequently target. Figure 116. Cybersecurity for digital assets – Common vulnerabilities to cyberattacks Key cybersecurity vulnerabilities for digital assets
Detail
Selected examples
Digital asset accounts
Digital asset accounts are accessible and secured via private key. However, some users tend to store these keys on their PC, making them easily accessible for hackers.
April 2019 – A thief stole almost 45,000 ETH by successfully guessing weak private keys.
Digital asset exchanges
Certain digital asset exchanges are centralized, making them vulnerable to hacks and ransomware attacks.
2019 - Hackers stole $40 million from Binance through phishing
Frauds or scams are rampant in the digital assets space, such as in ICOs, fraudulent addresses.
US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) estimated that US consumers lost US$80 million to cryptocurrencyrelated scams in the period between Oct 2020 and May 2021; 2021 – South Korea has a crypto fraud case estimated to have involved a total of US$3.85 billion, taking the country’s losses in crypto scams to US$5 billion over the past five years.
Fraud or scams
Source: Gemini, Forkast, Crypto Head
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