Anti-Crypto Hacking Hotline Established by Blockchain Research Firm Chainalysis

In a bid to mitigate risks from crypto hacking attempts, blockchain research firm Chainalysis has launched a hotline to accept reports of such events. If entities are approached with suspicious crypto payment requests from strangers, they can call up this hotline and register their alerts. The phoneline will be functional 24x7 and user- grievances around the theft, code exploit, or ransomware attack will be noted. Chainalysis is taking this decision to bring a hotline to flag crypto hacks amid rising number of cases around the world.

In a blog-post titled ‘Crypto Incident Response', Chainalysis said that hackers caused thefts and damages of up to $3 billion (roughly Rs. 23,486 crore) from 251 attacks in 2021.

“That's why today we're launching Crypto Incident Response, a rapid response service for organisations that have been targeted by a cyber-attack or unauthorised network intrusion that involves a cryptocurrency theft or demand,” the research firm wrote in its post.

Every distressed victim will be addressed by a team of researchers who will try to trace the lost or stolen crypto funds in case of a hack attack.

Local authorities could also be involved in more serious cases.

Chainalysis has claimed that repeatedly happening crypto attacks are scaring people from experimenting with this digital finance sector.

“Attacks are increasing in frequency and severity, presenting a significant barrier to building trust in cryptocurrency. We're investing in this service not just to assist organisations in their times of need, but also to help bring bad actors to justice and demonstrate that crypto is not the asset class of anonymity and crime,” the research firm noted.

Jarno Laatikainen, the Manager of Investigations at Chainalysis will be heading this initiative. So far however, it remains unclear, which regions will get the hotline service first.

So far in 2022, cyber criminals have stolen $1.7 billion (roughly Rs. 13,210 crore) in digital assets with Decentralised Finance (DeFi) protocols accounting for 97 percent of the total, a report by Chainalysis had recently claimed.

The $600 million (roughly Rs. 4,660 crore) Ronin bridge breach in late March and the $320 million (roughly Rs. 2,486 crore) Wormhole attack in February were the main sources of the loot.