IOCTA Report by Europol Shows Troubling Cyber Attack Data

Europol has recently released its 2019 Internet Organized Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA) report.

Last week’s IOCTA report focused on the growing number of threats lurking on the virtual landscape. Europol strongly believes that many preemptive measures must be taken to minimalize the damage of this growing threat:

“Countering cybercrime in its present form is essential in order to combat the future of it. In the majority of cases, the newest threats aren’t born from some revolutionary new technology. They are in fact, mostly spewing from undiscovered vulnerabilities in the technologies we use today.”

The IOCTA report showcases that things aren’t exactly all sunshine and rainbows in the crypto world. Crypto ransomware is still by far the most prominent cyber attack. It’s also revealed that attacks which acquire financial and personal data like credit card info, online banking info and crypto wallet data have been increasing in efficiency.

The IOCTA report shows that constant security upgrades are necessary

The report highlights that no matter how much crypto exchanges improve their security, they are still the number 1 target for attacks:

“Crypto exchanges are still acting as a magnet for cyber attacks. Back in 2018, over $1 billion in crypto was stolen from crypto exchanges and platforms worldwide.”

Europol also confirms that a lot of the cyber attack group are heavily targeting prominent members of the crypto ecosystem for years. The law enforcement agency believes that as the crypto market grows, more and more groups will attempt to target cryptocurrencies and the more experienced groups will strictly focus on crypto exchanges. The report highlights:

“We firmly believe that all law enforcement agencies must continue to build long-lasting and trust-based relationships with crypto-related businesses and academia. This is the key to more efficiently tackling the issues which come up during investigations.”

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