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June 24, 2019 • Issue 19:06:02

Cybercriminals scoring

deeper, wider, faster

And there's more disturbing news: Chainalysis, a New York
firm that develops software for monitoring cryptocurrency
transactions, reported that hacking "dwarfs all other forms
of cryptocrime, and is dominated by two professional
hacking groups." To date, these two gangs have absconded
with an estimated $1 billion in cryptocurrencies. "And given
the potential rewards, there's no question that hacking will
continue; it is the most lucrative of crypto crimes," the firm
wrote in a recent report.

POS vulnerabilities
Meanwhile, cyberattacks targeting credit and debit card
numbers and personally identifiable information continue,
albeit at a slower pace than previously. Verizon's 2019
Data Breach Investigations Report suggests EMV security is
By Patti Murphy delivering dividends: compromises of credit and debit card
information at POS terminals are declining. However, as
usiness email accounts are a burgeoning fron- anticipated, theft of payment data online is on the rise.
tier for cybercrimnals. And email's not the
only lucrative target for today's sophisticated In May 2019, Checkers Drive-In Restaurants Inc. disclosed
B thieves, as demonstrated by a spate of attacks that malware was placed on POS systems at 100-plus Rally's
on POS systems and parties handling collections for major and Checkers restaurants in 20 states (affecting about
medical labs. Perhaps the most stunning recent develop- 15 percent of its restaurants) that may have exposed the
ment in cybercrime is the realization that blockchains – the payment card data of an undisclosed number of customers.
ledgers that record cryptocurrency transactions, a technol- "The malware was designed to collect information stored
ogy considered to be extremely secure – are being hacked. on the magnetic stripe of payment cards," the company said
in a statement.
In January 2019, the Coinbase platform revealed it
had foiled an attacker trying to steal $1.1 million in Word of the Checkers' attack came shortly after news that
Ethereum cryptocurrency. Crypto exchanges Binance and an unknown number of restaurants in the fast-food chain
Cryptopia were less fortunate. Binance, one of the largest
cryptocurrency platforms, confirmed in May that hackers
had taken more than $40 million in bitcoins, or about 2
percent of the exchange's bitcoin holdings. Contributed articles inside by:
Cybercriminals apparently collected Binance account Peter Shenk .............................................................................................18
credentials via phishing attacks and malware. At about
the same time, Cryptopia, a New Zealand exchange, Dee and Emily Karawadra .................................................................36
suspended trading operations and was placed in liquidation Adam Atlas ..............................................................................................40
after it was discovered hackers siphoned $16 million in Hawkins Siemon ...................................................................................42
cryptocurrencies from the exchange.
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