In recent time the South Korean cryptocurrency scene has been in the news for the negative reason. Crypto hacking in the region has become rampant with several millions of dollar worth of crypto lost to this hack.
The South Korean government has released a report documenting all these hacks.
Seven Exchange Hacked Since 2016
Since the begin of 2016, seven large crypto trading and exchange platforms have been hacked in South Korea. The police have provided a report in retrospect. The report provided by the police states that in these seven hacks, about $99 million (112 billion won) has been illegal withdrawn and stolen from the platforms. $265,282 (300 million won), worth of crypto was stolen in the year 2016 while 2017 saw about $35.8 million (40.5 billion won) stolen from the platforms involved. This year crypto trading platform in the country has lost about $63 million (71.3 billion won) to hackers.
Wallet Hack
Wallet hacking is also a common occurrence during this period. The cybercrime unit of the police department of South Korea has recorded about 158 cases on this alone, since 2016.
2018 had the highest number of wallet hacking within the region. So far in 2018, the police have recorded about (91 crypto wallets) getting hacked. Of this 158 cases, only six of the culprits has been identified.
Some Got Hacked Twice
There has also been reporting of exchanges getting hacked twice. Youbit a popular exchange was hacked earlier on when it was named, “Yapizon”. The hack attempt on Yapizon, made them change the exchange name to Youbit. Eventually, the exchange still got hacked again, and about 17% of its asset was stolen. Youbit eventually had to file for bankruptcy. Other notable exchange hacks in the country includes: Bithumb Coinrail, Coinis, and Ripple4y.
Right now the South Korea authorities are looking to have cryptocurrency exchange user protected through the use of insurance. Since funds on the platform are insured, it becomes easy to get refunded by this insurance companies.
