Poorly secured Linux SSH servers are being targeted by bad actors to install port scanners and dictionary attack tools with the goal of targeting other vulnerable servers and co-opting them into a network to carry out cryptocurrency mining and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.

According to a report by security app De.Fi, cryptocurrency users lost nearly $2 billion to scams, rug pulls, and hacks in 2023, which is roughly half of the amount lost in the previous year. The reduction is largely attributed to improved security protocols, increased awareness within the community, and decreased activity in the market. However, the industry remains susceptible to security risks, as evidenced by the losses incurred by Ethereum, BNB Chain, zkSync Era, and Solana, among others. The most damaging attacks were access control exploits, followed by flash-loan attacks and exit scams.

According to data from blockchain security and analysis company Certik, cryptocurrency hacks have resulted in nearly $2.4 billion in stolen funds this year alone. The third quarter was the most active period for hackers, with 184 known attacks resulting in almost $700 million in stolen funds. The report states that the losses caused by hackers in the third quarter alone were greater than the total for the first and second quarters combined. While these numbers are alarming, they are significantly lower than last year's total of over $3.5 billion. According to SlowMist, there have been 450 confirmed hacking incidents as of 2023, with decentralized protocols on the Ethereum and BNB smart chains being the most common targets.

According to Scam Sniffer, another victim lost 103 stETH (237,000 USD) due to phishing scams about 2 hours ago.

According to ChainAegis monitoring, WIZ token on BNB Chain is suspected to have experienced a Rug Pull, and currently the token price has dropped by 100%.

The Qingdao police in Shandong Province, in conjunction with other authorities, have cracked a major underground banking case involving a total amount of 15.8 billion yuan, spanning 17 provinces and municipalities across the country, and arrested illegal currency exchange dealers. In November 2022, Qingdao police found that the accounts of Jin and others were extremely abnormal, with an average daily turnover of over 3 million yuan and a total transaction amount of more than 2 billion yuan, and that large amounts of funds were being operated at high frequencies throughout the day with abnormal characteristics such as rapid entry and exit. Li is an ordinary employee of a county-level textile enterprise, but the funds flowing through her associated and controlled third-party bank cards amount to more than 5 billion yuan, which is obviously inconsistent with her identity. In this regard, we conducted an investigation around her trading partners and found that Li's other identity was actually a currency exchange dealer specializing in illegal trading of virtual currencies. Li helped Jin exchange large amounts of funds into virtual currencies such as Tether through a virtual currency trading platform overseas. With solid evidence in hand, law enforcement officers launched a crackdown. Qingdao police seized virtual currencies such as Tether and Litecoin worth about 2 million yuan on the spot. The case has been transferred to the procuratorate for review and prosecution.

According to Scam Sniffer's monitoring, about an hour ago, a certain address lost approximately $250,000 worth of stETH and aEthUSDC due to a phishing scam.

SlowMist released its security report for last week (December 10-16, 2023), with an estimated total loss of $8,428,033. Key events:

SlowMist released a security report on social media for the week of December 3-9, 2023. The total loss last week was approximately $1.91 million USD. The top three losses by amount of funds affected are:

Scam Sniffer has monitored that about an hour ago, a user lost WBTC, PRIME, LINK, and SUDO worth $327,000 due to cryptocurrency phishing scams.