As of Tuesday, August 10, more than $ 600 million in virtual currencies were stolen by hackers.
At the same time as cryptocurrencies are democratized, crimes related to this sector are increasing.
Just like physical flights, Internet thefts require a certain know-how.
More profitable and less dangerous than the Casa de Papel bank robberies, money theft seems to be increasingly focused on cryptocurrencies.
This Tuesday took place the biggest theft of virtual currencies ever.
Hackers have managed to seize the equivalent of $ 600 million in Ethereum, BinanceChain and OxPolygon tokens held by Poly Network, a company specializing in cryptocurrency transfers.
Distraught, the company has been begging for several days on Twitter, the thugs to get in touch with it.
The case raises many questions about this new way of stealing money.
Is cryptocurrency cybercrime on the rise?
If the Poly Network flight breaks all records for its size, it is far from the first. On June 22, the cybercrime section of the Paris prosecutor's office opened an investigation after the disappearance of more than 40 million euros of cryptoassets managed by an association established near Dijon (Côte-d'Or). According to a report released in January by Atlas VPN, loot from cyber attacks on blockchain or cryptocurrency wallets stood at around $ 3.8 billion in 2020. In April, the company claimed that blockchain thefts and scams in the first quarter of 2021 were already up 46% compared to the same period last year.
This increase could in part be explained by the democratization of virtual currencies on a planetary scale.
"What interests the hacker, it is the lure of profit, explains to
20 Minutes
Thierry Karsenti, technical vice-president Europe at Palo Alto Networks, specialist in cybersecurity.
In the beginning, when the cryptocurrency industry was still quite confidential, it didn't attract a lot of people.
When we know today that colossal sums circulate around the world and that no country is an exception, obviously this attracts more.
"
How can you steal virtual currency?
For the heist of a bank, we imagine plans, weapons, a car waiting for you at the exit and a private jet to leave with the banknotes to the other side of the world. For a virtual flight, things are a little different. Already because there are no more physical constraints. “The playing field is global. From Paris, we can break up in Japan, ”underlines Thierry Karsenti. The theft technique is therefore totally different and requires computer resources, encryption skills and knowledge of cryptocurrencies, all at a very, very high level.
It should first be understood that cryptocurrency transactions are validated by interconnected computers. The aim of hackers is therefore to integrate this chain by pretending to be a trusted entity. "However, the various nodes in the chain create an environment of trust and validate transactions thanks to encryption, which is very consuming in terms of computer hardware resources because the calculations are complex and costly in energy", explains Thierry Karsenti.
Hackers will therefore seek to become a node in this chain with computing power that they can, for example, rent for a time.
“The greater the computing power, the more transactions we validate and the more important we become and gain the trust of other links.
The hackers will then abuse it and find loopholes at any level of the system (in algorithms, the organization of the chain…) to then hijack cryptocurrency wallets, ”continues the cybersecurity expert.
How easy is it to launder this money?
When criminals rob a bank, the difficulty does not end with how to steal that money, but also how to launder it afterwards. With cryptocurrency, it's exactly the same knowing that thanks to computers, money is generally easier to trace. “In the same way that banknotes are numbered, virtual wallets have numbers as well as associated email addresses. In addition, each transfer is signed by the links in the chain. They are therefore quickly identifiable, ”reports Thierry Karsenti.
However, it is possible to circumvent the pricing of cryptocurrencies, in particular thanks to various services offered on the Darkweb.
"It is possible to anonymize the wallets, but also to recruit people to withdraw this money in cryptocurrency houses in exchange for a percentage of the amount", gives as an example the technical vice-president Europe at Palo Alto Networks .
Even if these people get arrested, it is difficult to get back to the top of the chain.
Who steals cryptocurrency?
In the case of the $ 600 million stolen from Poly Network, the culprit is unlikely to be a budding hacker with dreams of becoming a millionaire.
Besides, the little thugs do not necessarily have an interest in aiming so high, because the bigger the heist, the more resources will be put in to find the thieves.
“The people behind this kind of theft are not necessarily criminals. On the other hand, we can have States which have interests to access large sums of money. Blacklisted states, for example, which have problems accessing dollars, ”says Thierry Karsenti. For example, according to a confidential UN report released in February, North Korea has deployed thousands of hackers to target companies and institutions in South Korea and elsewhere in the world. Nearly $ 300 million in cryptocurrency would have been stolen during these attacks. A sum intended to finance its banned nuclear and ballistic programs.
These incidents around cryptocurrency do not necessarily have to damage confidence in the sector.
“In the physical world there are bankruptcies, there are also counterfeit banknotes in circulation and so far we always have confidence when we exchange it, this has not discredited the fiduciary system.
It's the same with cryptocurrency: the fact that there are flaws and breakages does not mean that it is not serious and that there is no security, ”concludes Thierry Karsenti.
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