Coinspeaker
South Korean Crypto Exchange Upbit Suffered 159,061 Network Attacks in H1 2023

As per the latest report, South Korean crypto exchange Upbit has faced a staggering 159,000 network attacks targeted by hackers in multiple instances during the first half of 2023.

Network Attacks on Upbit

According to an October 9 report by South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, Dunamu, the company behind Upbit, has reported cryptocurrency figures to South Korean Representative Park Seong-jung of the People Power Party. These figures indicate a remarkable 117% increase in trading volume compared to the first half of 2022. Besides, there’s also an astonishing 1,800% surge compared to the same period in 2020.

Upbit stands as one of South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, boasting a 24-hour trading volume of approximately $1.2 billion. Other prominent exchanges in the country include Bithumb, Coinone, and Gopax.

To bolster security and thwart hacking attempts, Dunamu revealed that Upbit has increased its holdings in cold wallets to 70%. Furthermore, the exchange has enhanced security measures for funds stored in hot wallets. Typically, hot wallets are more susceptible to hacking as their private keys are stored online, unlike cold wallets, which store keys offline on external devices like hard drives and USBs.

Back in 2019, crypto exchange Upbit suffered a $50 million exploit, But since then, the crypto exchange hasn’t suffered a single security breach. Speaking to Yonhap, a Dunamu spokesperson said:

“After the hacking incident in 2019, we took various measures to prevent recurrence, such as distributing hot wallets and operating them, and to date, not a single cyber breach has occurred.“

Nevertheless, in late September, Upbit had to suspend Aptos token services due to its failure to detect a counterfeit token known as “ClaimAPTGift.com”. This fraudulent token infiltrated 400,000 Aptos wallets, resulting in the suspension of services.

Surge in Crypto Hacks

Seong-jung acknowledged the overall rise in cryptocurrency hacks and urged the South Korean government to adopt more robust measures. “The Ministry of Science and Technology should conduct extensive simulated security tests and assess the information security status to brace for cyberattacks, particularly against virtual asset exchanges, where hacking attempts are frequent,” he noted.

He also emphasized the need for the Ministry of Science and ICT to clarify its role in the management and supervision of these exchanges, addressing the ambiguity in their responsibilities.

Last month in September, Hong Kong-based crypto exchange CoinEx also suffered a $70 million hack amid a major compromise of its private keys.

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South Korean Crypto Exchange Upbit Suffered 159,061 Network Attacks in H1 2023