Link copied 
South Korea's prominent cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit, encountered more than 159,000 hacking attempts in the first half of 2023, as revealed by its management company, Dunamu. This data, shared with Park Seong-jung, a member of the People Power Party, indicates a significant increase, with hacking attempts rising by 117% compared to the first half of 2022 and a remarkable 1,800% compared to the first half of 2020.
Upbit currently maintains a daily trading volume of approximately $1.2 billion, positioning it among South Korea's leading cryptocurrency exchanges, alongside platforms like Bithumb, Coinone, and Gopax.
In response to these threats, Dunamu has highlighted that Upbit now secures 70% of its funds in cold wallets, while enhancing security measures for funds stored in hot wallets. Hot wallets, which have online keys, are more vulnerable to attacks, whereas cold wallets keep their keys offline, typically on devices like external drives or USBs.
While Upbit faced a significant security breach in 2019, resulting in a $50 million compromise, the exchange has remained breach-free since then, according to a Dunamu representative. They emphasized the proactive steps taken after the 2019 incident, including diversifying hot wallet operations.
However, despite these efforts, Upbit had to suspend Aptos token services in September due to mistakenly accepting a counterfeit token, "ClaimAPTGift.com," distributed to 400,000 Aptos wallets.
Park Seong-jung expressed concerns over the rising hacking incidents in the cryptocurrency sector and called upon the South Korean government, specifically the Ministry of Science and Technology, to conduct mock security tests and research to enhance the protection of digital asset exchanges. He also questioned the Ministry of Science and ICT's role in overseeing these exchanges.
Internationally, other cryptocurrency platforms faced cyberattacks in September, with CoinEx losing $70 million due to a breach of one of its private keys. Following the incident, CoinEx promised reimbursement for affected parties. Huobi Global's HTX exchange also reported a $7.9 million loss due to a security flaw on September 24.
