Cryptocurrencies growing popularity has no doubt drawn hackers and scammers alike into the bullish crypto industry, offering great opportunities to amass wealth through crime and fraud.
Many investors in the crypto space store a large percentage of their digital assets mainly on exchanges, which has made hackers to direct their focus on attacking these exchange platforms.
There is a headline for crypto hack attempt almost every week, and most of these attempts turn out to be successful, leaving investors in a pitiable state.
Last Month, Bithumb and Coinrail were victims of these hack attempts with both losing cryptos worth about $31.1 million and $66.7 million respectively.
While many exchanges are unable to withstand these crypto hack attempts, some can resist due to the ability to build strong cybersecurity.
In an attempt to encourage crypto exchanges to develop a strong cybersecurity culture in Korea, The Korea Blockchain Industry Association (KBA) applauded the cybersecurity standards of 12 cryptocurrency exchanges in the country after a two months examination on the security systems of the exchanges.
The inspection was self-regulatory, led by the KBA and was carried out with the concession of 14 exchanges out of a total of 23.
The assessment did not involve hacking simulation on the exchanges. Instead, it was conducted by authorized third-party experts through interviews in June and July.
The affirmed exchanges are Bithumb, Upbit, Huobi Korea, OKCoin Korea, Korbit, Coinone, Neoframe, Gopax, Cpdax, Coinzest, Hanbitco, and Dexko.
According to the association, these 12 operators met the minimum requirements that are considered as cybersecurity standards.
Two other exchanges ‘Sunny7’ and ‘Komid’ out of the 14, however, withdrew from the Inspection.
Jhun Ha-jin, head of KBA’s self-regulatory committee, stated during a press conference that the security flaws of the exchanges were identified during the period of the inspection. However, Jhun refused to give further details on the weaknesses due to the risk of cyber attacks.
He also added that meeting the minimum standard is not a guarantee that the 12 exchanges are immune to future hacking attacks.
Nonetheless, to secure investors’ digital assets, crypto exchanges must do everything possible to create stronger cybersecurity to protect their systems against hacks.