The cryptocurrency industry continues to grow and evolve. Unfortunately, not all developments are positive. The number of hacks affecting exchanges and wallet providers has risen significantly over the years. To make matters worse, criminals have many other options to steal Bitcoin and altcoins from unsuspecting users.
Growing Pains or Bigger Issues?
No one will deny the cryptocurrency industry has grown by leaps and bounds. Especially the year 2017 has been spectacular in this regard. Rising prices have attracted thousands of new investors. There is also the booming ICO industry to take note of. Money continues to pour into projects at a healthy rate.
Despite these positive developments, key issues remain present. Hacks, for example, are all too common in this industry. Not a quarter goes by without a big exchange getting breached and losing funds. Throughout 2018, numerous platforms have found themselves on the receiving end of such an intrusion.
This raises a lot of concerns in terms of security. Criminals are well aware platforms suffer from key weaknesses. Although no attack vector is exploited successfully across multiple platforms, the opportunities appear plentiful. Exchanges and other service providers need to improve customer data protection. Security audits are one possible solution to counter this emerging trend.
Opportunities Abound for Criminals
It is evident some companies may struggle to keep up with their growing customer base. Advancements in technology can create unknown vulnerabilities which go by unnoticed for an extended period of time. Other attack vectors have also become far too prevalent in this day and age.
There is a notable increase in the number of phishing attacks. This no longer affects just exchanges and wallets, but also ICOs and other platforms. Combined with an increase in cryptojacking, the current landscape does not look all that appealing. Both consumers and service providers can step up their game before the situation gets out of hand even further.
As the industry continues to evolve, so will the security measures. For now, these appear to be growing pains, rather than an unwillingness to provide proper protection. Criminals will continue to target cryptocurrency users by all means necessary. How successful their attacks will be, hinges on how their targets protect themselves over the next few years.
What are your thoughts on the increase in crypto-related criminal activity? How well do you think security measures will adapt? Let us know in the comments below.
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