Shinhan Bank to issue NFTs at 2023 Blockchain Grand Week in Seoul

Hacking Attempts on Upbit Reach 160,000 in First Half of the YearThere have been approximately 160,000 hacking attempts on Upbit, Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, in the first half of this year alone, according to a report submitted by Upbit’s operator Dunamu to lawmaker Park Sung-joong of the National Assembly’s Science, ICT, Broadcasting, and Communications Committee.“Cryptocurrency hacking incidents are increasing both domestically and internationally, and hacking attacks on exchanges such as Upbit, which have daily trading volumes exceeding KRW 2 trillion, are a serious issue,” Park said.Photo by Clint Patterson on UnsplashAn uptick in hacking attemptsThe data revealed that the number of cyber breach attempts in the first half of the year totaled 159,061–2.17 times higher than the number of attempts in the first half of last year, which stood at 73,249.Hacking attempts on Upbit have been steadily increasing in recent years, from 8,356 in the second half of 2020 to 34,687 and 63,912 in the first and second half of 2021, respectively. In the first half of last year, there were 73,249, and 87,242 in the second half. Notably, the exchange suffered losses of approximately KRW 58 billion (approximately $43 million) from a hacking attack in 2019.Ramping up securitySubsequently, Dunamu has taken action to enhance security by managing over 70% of its assets in cold wallets and operating hot wallets in a distributed structure instead of a singular one. Hot wallets refer to online crypto wallets, whereas cold wallets are crypto wallets that are offline and disconnected from the internet. Hot wallets offer the advantage of direct deposits and withdrawals, but they have weaker security levels — most known exchange hacks have thus occurred through this medium. On the other hand, cold wallets store private keys on offline sources like external hard drives and portable storage devices, making real-time trading difficult but providing better security and stability.“We have taken various preventive measures since the hacking incident in 2019, such as operating hot wallets in a distributed manner. There have not been any successful cyber breaches to date,” Upbit said.Regarding the role of the Ministry of Science and ICT in managing and overseeing crypto hacking incidents, Park pointed out that this still remains ambiguous. “The Ministry should conduct large-scale white-hat hacking tests and security assessments for crypto exchanges that are frequently faced with hacking attempts, as well as for hospitals and subway systems that manage large amounts of personal information,” he said.

Dunamu Pushes for Biodiversity Conservation Through NFT ProjectDunamu, the fintech company operating South Korea’s leading crypto exchange Upbit, said Monday that it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Korea Arboreta and Gardens Institute (KoAGI) and the Korea Green Foundation (KFG) to drive a non-fungible token (NFT) biodiversity project over the course of three years. This comes as part of efforts to ramp up biodiversity conservation efforts.Photo by Eelco Böhtlingk on UnsplashThe MOU was signed at Dunamu’s headquarters in Gangnam, southern Seoul, with Dunamu CEO Lee Sirgoo, Director Ryu Kwang-soo of the KoAGI, and Lee Mi-kyung, Head of the KFG, in attendance.“This partnership serves as a starting point for Dunamu to actively utilize our technology to conserve biological resources — especially trees — and collaborate with various communities,” said Lee Sirgoo, CEO of Dunamu.Conservation meets NFTsThe project will involve creating NFTs from images of plant seeds stored in the Seed Vault — a conservation facility managed by KoAGI — which will then be issued through Upbit NFT, the exchange’s NFT trading platform. Owners of these NFTs will have the opportunity to engage in various events such as quizzes, Dunamu said, thereby promoting biodiversity conservation and fostering awareness about the importance of forests.Additionally, certain plant species that have been issued as NFTs will be selected to be placed in plant conservation facilities built in collaboration with botanical gardens located near the plants’ natural habitats.“Given the irreplaceability of both NFTs and flora and fauna, we will continue to do our utmost to fulfill our environmental responsibilities,” CEO Lee emphasized.The involved parties are also looking to establish an online community where they could directly gather the NFT owners’ opinions through methods such as polling to help plan for more upcoming projects. This integration of online projects with offline conservation activities is expected to contribute to local development and biodiversity.Boosting ESG effortsAs a key part of its ESG strategy, Dunamu has been focusing on trees while leading efforts for environmental protection and forest restoration. Earlier this year, the company teamed up with KoAGI to issue NFTs and contributed its entire sum of sales proceeds and transaction fees of around KRW 20 million (approximately $14,800) to establish an endangered plant protection fund.The company also held a campaign back in March with the Korea Forest Service and the Korea Forest Welfare Institute called “2nd foRest,” dedicated to restoring forests affected by fires. For every virtual tree planted in Dunamu’s metaverse, 2ndblock, two real trees were planted.The following month, Dunamu donated KRW 500 million in aid for the recovery of areas hit by the large-scale forest fires in Gangneung, Gangwon Province. The company also established virtual reality healing gardens at the Geumcheon Fire Station and Seoul Rehabilitation Hospital.

Chinese authorities have apprehended an individual suspected of identity forgery in connection with the StarkNet (STRK) airdrop. The suspect, identified as Lan Mou, allegedly assumed the identities of others to submit false Early Community Member Program (ECMP) airdrop forms. Through this scheme, the suspect claimed over 40,000 STRK tokens that originally belonged to the victims. After successfully claiming the tokens, the suspect transferred them to an OKX wallet. Subsequently, the tokens were converted into over $91,000 worth of Tether, as reported by local media on April 30. Lan Mou was apprehended by police in Guangdong Province on April 25. Authorities seized a computer and two mobile phones during the arrest.Photo by Tamara Gak on UnsplashUnprecedented scale of identity theftWhile cryptocurrency scams and phishing attacks are prevalent, the scale of identity theft observed in this case is unprecedented. The suspect's method involved claiming airdrops using stolen identities, marking a novel approach to fraudulent activity in the cryptocurrency space. A crypto airdrop is a method used to distribute new cryptocurrency tokens, typically targeting early users who engage with a specific protocol. In the case of the StarkNet Foundation's airdrop, which launched on Feb. 20, a total of 700 million STRK tokens were distributed to various participants, including Ethereum solo and liquid stakers, Starknet developers, users, external projects and developers within the Web3 ecosystem. Concerns raised by developerFollowing the StarkNet airdrop, concerns were raised by pseudonymous Yearn.finance developer Banteg regarding the eligibility criteria. Banteg warned that the eligibility list mainly consisted of airdrop squatters, individuals who exploit airdrop opportunities for financial gain. These individuals often control multiple addresses to maximize their rewards. This incident is not the first instance of airdrop exploitation. In March 2023, it was revealed that airdrop hunters consolidated $3.3 million worth of tokens from the Arbitrum (ARB) airdrop into just two wallets, highlighting the prevalence of such fraudulent activities within the cryptocurrency community.