The cryptocurrency industry experienced a sharp decline in hacking activities in February 2024, but the total amount stolen by hackers still remains shockingly high. According to PeckShield, a blockchain security firm, cryptocurrencies worth $104.73 million were hacked into last month through over 20 attacks. Thus, this indicated a decrease of 42% from January’s whooping losses of $182.54 million involving more than 30 cases.
The cyber security situation in the cryptocurrency sector is still challenging. For instance, hackers took away around $1.7 billion in digital assets in 2023 to prove that this emerging field is continuously under threat. Notably, the year began with a major theft where on January 1, $82 million were siphoned off Orbit Bridge.
In spite of this, February experienced low incidences of such crimes with half number per month and few individuals returning some amounts they received from illegal sources. Furthermore, there was an increase in the number of individual hacking incidents, rising to 231 from 219 in the previous year (2022). In particular, North Korea-linked organizations with a record of 20 hacks were active.
Crypto Heists Highlight Cybersecurity Challenges
PeckShield’s March 1 update highlighted the top three heists of February, which targeted PlayDapp, FixedFloat along with Axie Infinity co-founder Jeff “Jihoz” Zirlin with losses of $36 million, $25.8 million and $9.7 million, respectively. These attacks took place on February 9, 18 and 23 were bad times for those platforms.
ShidoGlobal and Seneca also ended up being victims of cyber thefts. One such case occurred on February 29, 2020, when ShidoGlobal lost close to $7.3 million, causing the native token’s price to plummet by over 80% within a brief five minutes. Nevertheless, the hacker returned $5.3mn to the protocol, retaining a 20 % ransom and escaping with 20%.
According to PeckShield on cumulative assessment, it was noted that hackers returned 6.4% of the entire stolen funds in February, which may sound a small consolation, but it underlines the ongoing battle between cyber security measures and crypto-criminals’ ingenuity.
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