On Wednesday, January 3rd, computers experienced damage from infection with Meltdown and Specter viruses. The virus threatens all devices that use Intel chips to go online.
This is most computers, including home processors and laptops on Windows, macOS and even Linux. Among the companies, whose servers were amazed, was the Bittrex exchange – one of the largest crypto-exchangers in the world.
– What the virus does –
Meltdown and Specter are distributed over the Internet, but not the operating system, but the chip itself. Therefore, the operating system does not matter – even Smartphone or SmartTV can become infected. Both programs are hacking.
Having access to the chip, they steal data from the operating system, they can steal data from users of any exchanges, including Bittrex.
From Meltdown it’s easy to protect yourself – it’s enough to strengthen the protection of the processor core. Microsoft has already said that they are working on the release of the update.
From Specter to recover more difficult, and the developers are just looking for a way to solve the problem.
Internet giants like Google or Amazon are able to quickly calculate the infection and reinstall the server, but most of the exchanges have not yet had time to re-equip the server for more powerful ones, so as traffic grows, they slowly work and risk being subjected to hacker attacks.
According to the administration, the Bittrex exchange temporarily stopped work and performed calculations offline, until the servers were repaired. It remains a possibility that the chips are still infected.
– What to do if there is a crypto currency on Bittrex –
Owners of crypto-currencies with assets on Bittrex have good reasons for concern. Many exchange exchanges and Bittrex including, store user data, including passwords, on their servers. Even cloud servers can be affected.
This means that the creators of Meltdown and Specter can access your accounts on the Bittrex exchange and other infected exchanges, if any. Having received passwords from your account, attackers can steal all your savings.
The exchanges are the intermediary between the holder and the system in the block chain. Like any website, they are poorly protected, so we recommend that you always withdraw money from exchanges (especially with Bittrex) directly into the crypto, leaving a minimum for trading. So you will protect yourself from hackers and possible fraud on the part of the exchange itself.
If you have not transferred the crypto currency with Bittrex to your wallet, do it right now , until you are sure of the safety of your funds.
Bittrex has already frozen accounts of a third of users for security reasons. Similarly, other exchanges may enter. If you do not hurry, you can miss the profit.
And all the rest, especially miners, need to install operating system updates in a timely manner, since the malicious program reduces the speed of the computer by as much as 30%. Infected computers produce a third less crypto currency than healthy ones.
