The cryptocurrency exchange Gate.io was allegedly the target of a group of hackers who managed to compromise a popular web analytics site this past week.

ESET, an internet security firm reported on Tuesday, that a group of bad actors were behind compromising an Ireland-based web analytics by the name of StatCounter in an effort to steal Bitcoin from the exchange’s customers.

The would-be bitcoin thieves managed to upload malicious code into the StatCounter script of their webpage, by way of registering a very similar domain to that of the analytics site.

They did this by swopping two letters on the fake domain from the original to form “StatConuter” which is difficult to pick up when scanning for unusual or malicious activities said ESET. The domain had previously been suspended back in 2010 for abusive behaviour claimed the internet security firm.

Used by more than 2 million websites, StatCounter provides stats on billions of web hits per day. The hackers fake account was in fact picked up by many sites but Gate.io was the only target.

The report stated that the script itself was created to target one particular URI (uniform resource identifier):

“myaccount/withdraw/BTC”

“It turns out that among the different cryptocurrency exchanges live at time of writing, only Gate.io has a valid page with this URI. Thus, this exchange seems to be the main target of this attack,” the report concluded.

Obviously, the URI is used by Gate.io to transfer BTC from their own wallet to external bitcoin addresses said the report and the hackers script automatically replaces any bitcoin users address with belonging to hackers.

Due to the nature of the malicious server being able to generate a new address each and every time a visitor loads the StatCounter script “it is hard to see how many bitcoins have been transferred to the attackers,” claimed the researchers.

Upon being notified by ESET about the attack, Gate.io made an announcement on Wednesday stating that they “immediately removed” the StatCounter feature from their site, stressing that all user’s funds were safe.

According to data from CoinMarketCap, Gate.io currently is the 38th biggest crypto exchange globally.

Have you ever been the victim of a malicious attack on an exchange which you frequent? Let us know your experiences by commenting below.

Follow CoinBeat on Facebook, Twitter & Telegram

Subscribe to our CoinBeat Newsletter

Submit an article to CoinBeat

View live Marketcap Prices here