Bithumb, South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange, recently lost nearly 20.2 million XRP (about $6.2 million at that time) and 3 million EOS (about $12.5 million) in what appears to be a series of illegitimate withdrawals conducted by an insider. The exchange suspended withdrawals and deposits on the platform after the hack was noticed. This would be the exchange's second major attack in roughly a year. A new report from cybersecurity firm Group-IB described a new generation Trojan horse malware, "Gustuff," which uses "web fakes" that look like regular apps and phish for sensitive data (usernames, passwords, etc.) through push notifications. Group-IB warned that users of cryptocurrency and banking apps are particularly targeted and that using third-party app stores increases risk of exposure.

Law enforcement in Canada has recently been active in the cryptocurrency space. The Canadian police froze the assets of the founders of Vanbex, a blockchain services company, as part of a fraud investigation into the company's 2017 ICO, which raised $22 million through the sale of a token called FUEL. According to court papers, Vanbex told investors that FUEL's value would increase dramatically, but in actuality, the company developed no usable products and conducted the ICO solely for its own financial benefit. No criminal charges have been filed to date. Separately, a Toronto judge ordered the forfeiture of about 280 bitcoin (now worth $1.4 million) from an online drug dealer who allegedly used cryptocurrency to purchase arms and illegal narcotics on the dark web. This may be Canada's largest-ever forfeiture of bitcoin to date.

Use of bitcoin by Hamas and North Korea was also in the news this week. According to reports, Hamas recently issued a new video that advises how to acquire and send bitcoin to unique, individualized addresses. Previously, donors were told to send all funds to one specific bitcoin address. The new method apparently makes it harder for law enforcement to identify and track donations and their donors. According to another recent report, in addition to cryptocurrency exchange hacks and cryptocurrency ransom malware, North Korea may also be orchestrating fraudulent ICO's as a means of attempting to steal cryptocurrency to fund military operations.

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