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As it turns out, we were all so concerned with the recent attack on BTER that we didn’t even notice the other hacks occurring on “neighboring” exchanges, and while evidence is currently limited, it is being whispered amongst members of the crypto community that all three attacks were coordinated, heavily planned and are possibly even linked.
Recently, exchanges Excoin and HitBTC joined BTER as the latest groups to suffer a hack, and it is being reported that millions have been stolen from a great number of financial institutions, suggesting that it’s not just the bitcoin arena that’s been hit.
Both HitBTC and Excoin are not revealing just how much was taken, but at the same time, it was apparently enough for both sites to go down temporarily. Excoin later posted on its Twitter account that they would be back online in the near future:
“I apologize for the lack of updates, we are working with our data center to find a solution. We will be back and running soon.”
That doesn’t appear to be an option now, however. As much as $300 million has been stolen, while other sources are reporting the stolen amount as nearly $1 billion. The New York Times is reporting that cyber-security firm Kaspersky Lab has compiled evidence that the attacks were originally planned back in 2013, and part of the problem is that the banks work so secretly that the thefts were never fully reported.
The Times states:
“The silence around the investigation appears motivated in part by the reluctance of banks to concede that their systems were so easily penetrated and in part by the fact that the attacks appear to be continuing.”
Continuing is the key word, here.
