Cryptocurrency values have risen and fallen in spectacular fashion over the last year and while financial watchdogs are looking to tighten the regulatory grip on how cryptocurrency trading operates, some traders have already profited from the volatility in the new currencies – and they’re not the only ones. Below Martin Voorzanger, EclecticIQ, explains for Finance Monthly how criminals are making the most of the current crypto sphere.
Another group making profits from the turbulent cryptocurrency market is cybercriminals. In fact, last year there was a marked increase in cryptomalware reports and breaches of crypto exchanges and it’s clear that 2018 will be no different. After all, where there is money, there is crime.
The future ‘bank job’
In some cases, criminals are adapting tried and tested cybercrime techniques – such as hacking email accounts, social engineering and spoofing emails – to prise digital coins out of the hands of those that own them.
For example, in late 2017, criminals pulled off the classic bank heist – with a twist. Making off with approximately 4,700 Bitcoins (valued at the time as $70m) in a raid on digital currency exchange, NiceHash, hackers gained access to the company’s payment services through an employee’s PC. The organisation described the attack as “sophisticated social engineering”.
Hackers found a similar route into Bithumb – South Korea’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange – earlier in 2017. Again, the weak link was an employee – and this time it was their home computer which was compromised. While, in this case, no currency was stolen, a vast amount of personal computer data was. Despite Bithumb suffering no real, initial monetary loss, the theft of sensitive personal data can actually be even more damaging to a business. In this instance, Bithumb stated that no passwords were stolen, but customers reported receiving calls and emails that scammed them out of funds, ultimately resulting in financial loss for Bithumb and potentially an irreversibly damaged reputation.
While, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies may have been designed with security in mind through the blockchain platform, to keep their crypto assets and data safe, organisations can’t rely on this alone. Yes, blockchain is notoriously difficult to tamper with, however opportunist criminals have found something much easier to compromise – the computers and employees within exchanges.
It is for this reason that organisations must exercise more caution and ensure all security technology and practices are fit for purpose. Good security hygiene should always be front of mind in finance matters – whether it’s around cryptocurrency or not.
A new kind of ‘botnet’
Potentially more worrying than these older, but still successful, cybercrime tactics, is when criminals start to adapt new techniques specifically with the intention of defrauding holders of crypto assets. One of the methods that is becoming popular with criminals in a bid to exploit digital currencies is cryptojacking – where cybercriminals take over employees’ computers to secretly mine cryptocurrency. While the method itself has been around for some time, the surge in the value of cryptocurrencies means mining coins has become an incredibly enticing prospect for criminals. And although each infected device can only mine a small amount of value, criminals are collecting enough machines to create data-mining ‘botnets’ which collectively, can deliver a large profit.
While cryptojacking in itself may not carry the destructive payload of ransomware or other malware, it still represents a device compromise and one which, at best, affects the performance and longevity of devices and, at worst, provides an open doorway for more destructive threats, such as ransomware.
Furthermore, it’s not just the cryptocurrencies themselves that are under threat of attack. Worryingly, earlier this year, security firm Radiflow reported that a European water provider had been compromised. This attack represented the first public discovery of cryptocurrency mining malware in the systems of a critical national infrastructure organisation proving that criminals are no longer just after currency – they want power.
The threat to cryptocurrencies is real and growing - whether the end game of the criminals is financial gain or to disrupt critical infrastructures. Indeed, Microsoft warned earlier this year that it has seen a surge in currency-mining malware infecting Windows PCs in enterprises around the world. The company believes this could be the work of external criminals or, equally, insiders with access to company systems.
Ultimately, while cryptocurrencies themselves are secure, the exchanges and the systems that surround them are not. Humans remain the weakest link – whether intentionally or not – criminals continue to use the same tried and tested vectors of attack and humans are still just as vulnerable to being conned or manipulated by social engineering.
One thing is for certain though – cybercrime activities in this area will not decrease anytime soon. Organisations need to make sure they have the correct security measures in place, including ensuring that employees understand the threats associated with social engineering, to best protect against this new kind of threat.
Billon and the Polish Credit Office (Biuro Informacji Kredytowej - BIK), the largest credit bureau in Central and Eastern Europe, have announced they will implement blockchain for storage and secure access to sensitive customer information. Billon's blockchain technology will benefit the bureau through superior security, integrity and immutability of data. The fully-GDPR compliant solution guarantees total visibility, trackable history and full data integrity for any client-facing document including banking records, loan agreements, insurance claims, telephone bills and terms & conditions.
BIK, owned by the largest banks in Poland including Pekao, ING, mBank, Santander and Citi, tracks nearly 140 million credit histories of over 1 million businesses and 24 million people. "Our cooperation with Billon is long-term. We believe that blockchain technology will transform client communications in the financial sector. Our solution will soon be expanded to include electronic delivery with active confirmation and remote signing of online agreements. It is also important that the solution meets legal requirements of a durable medium of information, as well as the EU GDPR requirements," said Mariusz Cholewa, President of BIK.
BIK and Billon developed the solution for durable medium of information, defined by EU regulations and directives such as MIFID II and IDD directives. The partnership saw eight Polish banks participating in trials, which established that Billon's scalable blockchain architecture could publish over 150 million documents every month. This would be more than sufficient for even the largest institutions to move to paperless customer service.
The solution has been approved following extensive consultation with the Polish Office of Competition (UOKiK) and Data Protection Regulator (GIODO), making it one of the world's first Regtech compliant blockchain solutions, and the only one with on-chain data storage and a mechanism enabling "the right to erase personal data". Currently, the only major alternatives to this are hardware-based archive solutions such as legacy WORM drives. Compared to them, Billon's solution offers 30% saving in TCO, ensuring minimal upfront costs.
"Our partnership is the start of a true revolution in information management. It is now possible to move away from the constraints of closed central databases to a democratic blockchain-based Internet where every user will be able to control their identity," explained Andrzej Horoszczak, CEO of Billon. "This solution provides the world's first GDPR-compliant blockchain platform that streamlines customer service processes and implements customer rights such as the "right to be forgotten". We're fixing the problem of consumer data control, creating a level playing field between individuals and corporations. The benefits could affect more than the financial sector, and we anticipate it will soon be adopted by industries such as telecommunications, insurance and utilities. Our cooperation is only the first step to introducing mass blockchain technology use for trusted document management."
(Source: Billon)
From its inception Bitcoin has led the rise of crypto culture worldwide, creating quite a roller-coaster economy in the digital currency sphere. Below Founder and CEO of Chaineum, Laurent Leloup talks Finance Monthly through the yesterday, today and tomorrow of cryptocurrencies.
Founded in 2009, Bitcoin was born from the notion of creating a currency that was independent of any other authority, is transferable electronically instantaneously and has low transaction fees. In its early days, the cryptocurrency was somewhat of an unknown entity to mainstream audiences; attracting a small, but dedicated, following of techies and leading to the creation of similar currencies.
The Bitcoin evolution
Since its inception, Bitcoin has increased in value exponentially throughout the past few years, particularly in 2016 and 2017 as more and more people began accepting cryptocurrency as a credible form of currency and not just a buzzword for tech insiders.
2017 saw a record year for Bitcoin. Starting out at a value of $1,000 in January, the currency hit an all time high of $17,000, a 70% increase, in the first two weeks of December 2017.
Bitcoin’s growth can be down to a number of factors. Firstly, the cryptocurrency model itself enables project developers to bypass banks in order to gather funds. For merchants, there is the benefit of being able to expand to new markets where fraud rates are unacceptably high, or credit cards are simply not available. This creates net results of lower fees, fewer administrative costs and a wider reach across previously inaccessible markets.
The Bitcoin following: from a niche community to the mainstream stage
Bitcoin has always attracted somewhat of a dedicated following. However, this fanbase was often restricted to the crypto community which, although passionate about Bitcoin, was quite an exclusive, niche community largely misunderstood by mainstream audiences.
Social media has played a significant role in the growth of Bitcoin by giving the cryptocurrency community a platform to come together and share their thoughts on the marketplace. For instance, Twitter has a ‘Crypto Group’ where Bitcoin and cryptocurrency enthusiasts can interact and tweet; making it much more accessible for everyday users to become part of the cryptocurrency movement.
Rise of ICOs and cryptocurrencies
As Bitcoin’s presence within the mainstream increased, awareness around blockchain technology and cryptocurrency has grown. With this, the marketplace has seen more and more cryptocurrencies launch through the ICO (Initial Coin Offering) mechanism. Currently the industry is seeing at least three new ICOs launching every week as more investors and developers look to this new fundraising system as a viable way to fund their blockchain projects.
There are many benefits to ICOs which is perhaps why they have become the fastest growing fundraising mechanism in 2017 alone. For organisations who are looking to invest in a project , it is considered a much faster and easier fundraising method, as anyone can start one and is free from geographical restrictions.
Additionally, many people also take interest in the cryptocurrencies because of their liquidity. Rather than investing huge amounts of money in a startup which is locked up in equity of the company, they can offer the opportunity to see gains quicker and take profits out easily.
Nevertheless, whilst cryptocurrencies do offer opportunities to see considerably higher ROI than traditional investments, prices of tokens can be extremely volatile and can be a risky investment. Therefore, investing in these kind of projects should be sought after consulting an expert.
The future of cryptocurrencies
With more and more cryptocurrencies launching, commentators are weighing in on how this will impact the wider industry. Due to the rapid growth of the currency over such a short space of time some are comparing Bitcoin to the ‘dotcom bubble’ in the 90s and early 2000s in that it isn’t sustainable in the long term.
However, in 2017 alone, ICO projects were able to collectively raise over $3billion clearly demonstrating that their significance is only increasing. With more projects expected to launch in 2018 further increasing mainstream awareness around cryptocurrencies, it seems we can expect this trend to remain consistent for the foreseeable future.
What's more, as regulation continues to evolve, ICOs could become very different and we could see them serving many different purposes.
Some commentators have even stated there is a chance they could even replace IPOs and make a fairer and more equally distributed economy, where anyone could become an investor with little risk as a consequence. Tokenisation of capital which provides new levels of liquidity and transparency could become the future as we may end up seeing all kinds of organisations, including larger enterprises, begin to explore the ICO space.
