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In an interview on CNBC’s ‘Mad Money,’ hosted by Jim Cramer, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince called out crypto exchanges stating these firms “are becoming a popular target for cybercriminals.” According to Prince, cryptocurrency exchanges need to focus more on securing customers’ funds to prevent the rising cases of hacks and ransomware attacks. Explaining the rising number of hacks on cryptocurrency exchanges, Prince said that money is the primary motivation, similar to bank robbers choosing banks.
“The old adage is, Why do bank robbers rob banks? It’s because it’s where the money is.” “One of the biggest places that cyber attackers are going after right now is the various cryptocurrency exchanges and other cryptocurrency parts of the universe.”
Over the course of the year, the cryptocurrency ecosystem attracted attention to the rising number of ransomware attacks. Chainanalysis reported over $81 million in ransom was paid by victims by May 2021. Notably, the Colonial Pipeline hack in May raised concerns in the industry. The hackers disrupted fuel supply to some parts of the US East Coast, demanding a $5 million ransom - payable in BTC. In June, Russian ransomware group REvil infiltrated over 200 companies across the globe via software supplier Kaseya, using its technology management software to spread the ransomware via the cloud. The hackers encrypted one of Kaseya’s tools with infected files, paralyzing hundreds of companies. The hackers then demanded a $70 million ransom, paid in BTC, to negotiate about decrypting the files. These ransomware attacks have caused considerable debate in the crypto security space and the role that blockchain-based digital currencies play in the rising ransomware attacks. Despite the increasing ransom attacks, some crypto analysts believe blockchains actually help authorities track and arrest hackers easier due to the public nature of Bitcoin’s transactions, which are broadcasted on the network. San Francisco-based Cloudflare is a web security infrastructure provider that protects companies from online attacks. Its key proposition service provides security to companies to prevent distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, which are common on crypto exchanges. O0n the question if Prince would hold his cryptocurrencies on an exchange protected by Cloudflare, he said, “the company is giving a front-row seat to [its consumers] to prevent the evolving cyber threats they face. The company stays ahead of the curve through innovations that prevent any new forms of ransomware and hack attacks from affecting them.
“We’re proud of the fact that we’ve kept the cryptocurrency customers that are ours secure and safe and helped augment the additional protections that they have in place.” “I’d feel safe using any of the cryptocurrency exchanges that use Cloudflare today.”
Apart from technically dealing with hackers, the US government is also fighting the rising cases of ransomware attacks. In June, the U.S. President’s national security advisor called on the G7 countries to unite and fight against the consistent ransomware attacks on national sites. In a briefing from the White House press, Jake Sullivan, selected as Joe Biden’s national security advisor, called on the regulation of the cryptocurrency ecosystem as it represents “the core of how these ransomware attacks are carried out.”