Thanks to Blockchain applications like Ethereum, initial coin offerings are an integral part of the world of cryptocurrency

Blockchain technology, they were able to raise a large amount of capital through the initial offer of coins (ICO) – much like the companies that are contributing to the stock market in an offer initial public.

The popularity of cryptocurrencies many investors are looking for the next best thing after the prices of Bitcoin and Ethereum have skyrocketed over the last 12 months.

This has led a number of ICOs to receive massive investments for their projects. But, where there is wealth, there is a criminal interest – as suggested by a recent report by Ernst and Young

400 million dollars in two years

According to Fortune, up to 10% of all money collected by country offices between 2015 and 2017 was either lost in the crypto ether or stolen in hacks. In their hurry to attract investors, companies that launch Blockchain services often neglect the security precautions necessary to protect themselves and the investors who buy their chips.

The Ernst and Youngs report states that more than $ 3.7 billion was collected by 372 country offices during this period. This is a huge sum for "start-up" offers, and it's hardly surprising that hackers are looking for easy targets.

The report states that large ICOs are considered easy targets for seasoned pirates:

"Hackers are drawn to haste, the absence of an authority Centralized, irreversible Blockchain transactions and the chaos of information.The project founders attach to attracting investors and security is often not a priority.Pirates benefit from successfully – the more ICO is hype and great, the more attractive it is to attacks. "

You do not need to browse the Internet to find plucked ICO stories by pirates. A return to Cointelegraph's archives provides numerous examples

As reported in August 2017, cybercrimes have increased in parallel with the popularity of Ethereum, thanks to its intelligent contract system that allows developers to create their own decentralized applications on the Ethereum. Blockchain

These hacks have a cumulative effect – because the Ethereum Blockchain supports the weight of an ICO's traffic and even more if there is a stressful event around the site. a hack when users are looking to get their funds out of the ICO. project.