Two major bitcoin exchanges were hit with DDoS attacks this week.
The two targets of the bitcoin cyberattacks were Bitfinex and BTC-e. BTC-e saw its exchange go down on Monday following a DDoS attack on its website. However, the attack didn’t last long and it was back up and running later that day.
The bitcoin cyberattacks on Bitfinex took its systems down for a short period of time on Tuesday. The attacks was quickly taken care of, but the exchange was hit again on Wednesday. However, the service was still able to run during the attack.
A DDoS attack is a distributed denial-of-service attack. This means that hackers attempt to take websites and services down by overloading the systems with massive amounts of information. This means it isn’t a true hack and there wasn’t a threat to the currency that users trade on those exchanges, reports CNBC.
The attacks on Bitcoin exchanges come as the cryptocurrency gains popularity and value in 2017. The price of the digital currency has been hanging between $2,500 and $3,00 recently. This, as well as predictions that it will continue to rise in value over the next few years, make it a target for hackers.
While Bitcoin may be the most popular of the cryptocurrencies, it ins’t the only one out there. Ether is another digital currency that has been performing well this year. There’s even been talk that ether may catch up to Bitcoin in the future due to its surge in growth lately.
As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
