As detailed in a report by Hackmageddon, cryptocurrency theft incidents have been a lot more lucrative in 2018, with attackers managing to steal $854,182,000 worth of crypto coins after 18 major cryptocurrency exchange hacks.
Out of all 18 hacks which contributed to the $854 million figure, the most substantial part of the bounty was taken after the Japanese Coincheck exchange was breached by attackers who managed to get away with $524 million.
Just to make a comparison, throughout the entirety of 2017, threat actors managed to steal $472,461,000 in total, only a little more than half of the total amount of cash taken this year.
As the analysis also says, having almost a $1 billion stolen in one year by malicious actors is an impressive figure but, considering that 772 Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) managed to raise almost $19 billion, the success and interest of cyber crooks in cryptocurrency heists.
What is more impressive from an efficiency point of view is that attackers have almost doubled their 2017 cash yield in the first nine months of 2018, with three more months to go for some extra earnings.
The cryptocurrency hacking top for 2018 is lead by Coincheck's astonishing $524 million loss
The top crypto hacking incidents for 2018 is lead by Coincheck with $524 million worth of NEM digital coins stolen in one fell sweep, followed by BitGrail's 17 million ($170 million) incident, and last week's Zaif attack which left the Japanese exchange with $60 million worth of crypto coins missing.
The seven other spots in the top ten cryptocurrency exchange security breaches are taken by Coinrail ($37.2M), Bithumb ($31.5M), and Michael Terpin ($24M and the only individual who entered the top).
The top continues with Bitcoin Gold ($18M), Bancor ($13.5M), an undisclosed Japanese wallet worth $10M, and KICKICO on the last place with $7.7M worth of KickCoins after the initial the startup's ICO.
In every successful crypto attack, crooks have either used a combination of malware and phishing to steal to a crypto wallet's password or by compromising the security of wallets provided by cryptocurrency exchanges.