Top 5 Biggest CryptoCurrency Hack Loss Incidents

Aug 17, 2019 08:00 am Cyber Security 400

Once in a while, news emerges of an individual has lost their money in a cryptocurrency investment due to CryptoCurrency Hack. In most cases, investors lose money after a digital currency loses value overnight.

But there are shocking cases where a cryptocurrency exchange loses millions of dollars owing to a hacking incident. This article looks at the most devastating hacking incidents that have occurred in the cryptocurrency industry.

#1: The Mt. Gox CryptoCurrency Hack

In 2013, one of the first and most high profiles CryptoCurrency Hack incidents hit the crypto world. The world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange at the time, Mt.Gox, was breaking trade volume records.

Max Karpeles, the company’s CEO, was one of the most prominent figures in the industry. However, while Mt. Gox enjoyed great success, it had some unsettling weaknesses:

The company lacked VCS (Version Control Software) – a feature that enables people to check a company’s code, monitor it for changes or identifies who made the changes.

Everything about the company’s code had to be approved by Karpeles.

The company lacked proper management.

Mt. Gox had already been a victim of a previous hacking attack – in 2011; hackers violated the exchange’s system and forced a sale of a huge chunk of bitcoins into their wallets.

Mt. Gox may have managed to crawl back from the 2011 attack, but it was the 2014 hacking incident that changed the way people looked at cryptocurrency exchanges. Read here to learn in full detail how the Tokyo based exchange got hacked.