G4S, a giant security firm based in the UK has for the first time adopted crypto custody services in an effort to secure investors’ digital assets.
While broadcasting the move through a press release dated October 16th, the firm indicated it had developed “an innovative new service offering high –security offline storage that helps to protect assets from criminals and hackers”. The firm further stated that it adopted the ‘crypto custody service’ in response to the rise in popularity of the crypto assets whose vulnerability to hackers and criminals has seen to assume an upward trend in the recent past.
The crypto loss report
The crypto world has witnessed its fair share of brutality from hackers and cryptocurrency conmen with this year alone witnessing the crypto industry loose an estimated $1 billion through such fraudulent means.
According to a report by Cipher Trace- a blockchain security firm, losses in crypto assets have accumulated 3.5 times as higher as they were in 2017. The losses ranged from a series of small robberies to sophisticated cyber hacks with the Japanese-based exchange Coindesk suffering the greatest loss estimated at $530 million worth of crypto.
“This report indicates a pattern of smaller robberies on a regular basis and sophisticated professional cyber thieves who carry out hacks at both the exchange and platform levels by capitalizing on exposed vulnerabilities, as well as by socially engineering employees who work at these companies.” The report stated.
Addressing the risks
With the new system in place, the security service giant aims to curb most of the risks associated with digital assets. The firm outlined that the vulnerability exhibited by online wallets is because are only as secure as a computer can be from a hacker.
“Our security solution is built on a foundation of ‘Vault storage.’ We not only take the asset offline, but break them up into fragments that are independently without value and store them securely in our high security vaults, out of reach of cyber criminals.” A G4S senior risk analyst explained.
The vulnerability threats in the crypto market has seen many cryptocurrency start ups as well as traditional financial institutions try to adopt new crypto custody techniques which might help curb the vice. Just the previous week, Fidelity, a financial service giant in the US announced a new custody and trading platform for its esteemed enterprise clients just a few weeks after BitGo, a crypto security startup was granted a go ahead by the US SEC to operate as a custodian for digital assets.
https://www.coindesk.com/security-firm-g4s-has-launched-a-crypto-custody-service/
https://www.coindesk.com/nearly-1-billion-stolen-in-crypto-hacks-so-far-this-year-research/
