Report: Cyber Criminals Discover Bitcoin
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Online criminals discover the bitcoin: More than 8 million anti-bitcoin attacks recorded in 2013 * watch your online wallet carefully.
The virtual currency bitcoin suffers at the hand of hackers. 2013 saw a sharp rise in the number of cyber attacks aimed at the currency – 8.3 events in 2013, 2.5 times the number recorded in 2012.
This information was published as part of Kaspersky Lab’s financial cyber threats report for 2013. Bitcoin is aimed at electronic transactions and has enjoyed global popularity. Its exchange rate was 13.6 dollars in early 2013, soaring to 1,200 dollars as the year drew to a close.
Apparently it also fell prey to hackers. If users store their bitcoins on their computer, without encryption, all the hacker has to do is steal the users’ electronic wallet file and access their account.
iHLS – Israel Homeland Security
Kaspersky Lab found about 30 examples of malicious code used exactly for that purpose: Software that steals electronic wallet files, applications that install bitcoin mining code on a computer in order to steal it at a later stage, and more.
Senior Kaspersky researchers said that since the bitcoin’s rising value naturally drew the attention of criminals. Storing bitcoins is risky, since there’s almost no way to retrieve stolen coins. Unlike normal currencies bitcoins are traded without government oversight.
In order to use bitcoins safely experts recommend encrypting wallet files, in addition to using an internet information security solution to provide additional protection against malware.
