As the crypto market grows, there are more attempts by hackers to break into and exploit the industry’s infrastructure. It has been reported that Binance and Kraken have been weakened by recent attacks similar in nature to those behind the Coinbase Global breach.
Bribing staff inside the companies is an age-old tactic that is still used in these types of attacks, like what happened in the Coinbase case. The data gathered contained customers’ names, birth dates, their addresses, their IDs, and details about their accounts.
As per sources familiar with the matter, the platforms managed to stop both attacks and did not give away any user data to the intruders.
In the Coinbase hack, a ransom price of $20 million was asked to delete what they had taken. However Coinbase instead of paying up announced a bounty reward of the same amount on the hackers.
The difference between Kraken and Binance was mostly in their cybersecurity. Binance revealed that its customer support team faced attempts by attackers to bribe them and share their Telegram IDs to communicate securely. Even so, AI-powered bots helped in preventing bribery schemes in several languages. Moreover, agents were only allowed to view user information after the user called them.
More of these events are happening as part of an overall trend. In the previous two years, more cases of cyberattacks have been seen, mainly during exciting market periods for crypto. It is also likely that bad actors are collecting information about users using malware on their devices and using that data to pretend to be support team members. Binance users in Israel fell victim to scammers pretending to be from Britain who urged them to send their money to deceptive wallets.
Despite advances in cybersecurity, the crypto sector remains a top target for digital thieves. The industry has seen billions lost in hacks involving exchanges like Bybit, Bitfinex, and the infamous collapse of FTX. A recent breach at Bybit has even prompted scrutiny from EU regulators into the use of certain platforms like OKX, allegedly exploited by cybercriminals.
As attacks evolve in complexity, the crypto world faces increasing pressure to bolster its defenses. For now, Binance and Kraken’s resilience offers a reassuring example of how vigilance and robust systems can make a critical difference in safeguarding digital assets.
Also Read: Tether Blacklist Lag Lets Hackers Steal $78M in USDT: Report
