Ban Phishing From Your Crypto Waters
Everyday, I read fishing attacks costing millions of dollars and I wonder why will anyone waste so much money attacking anyone with fish? She asked. They mean P-H-I-S-H-I-N-G a tech terminology that simply means stealing from others by pretending to be something that you are not. He explained. Wow! that is a lot of stealing she exclaimed. I certainly don’t want to be in Crypto waters, I could be phished-she thought.
Phishing has become one of the leading sources of hacks in the blockchain space, so much so that in addition to other crypto hacks and scam they threaten the very existence of Crypto, NFTs and DeFi(more on this later). The only saving grace appears to be the growth in crypto adoption. According to CNBC, Crypto News Flash and many others
1. Scammers took a record $14b in crypto related crime, a growth of upto 79% in 2021.
2. Of that, Cryptocurrency theft increased 516% from 2020, to $3.2 billion worth of cryptocurrency. Of this total, 72% of stolen funds were taken from DeFi protocol.
Yes crypto bad actors are shooting crypto in the leg, impeding its growth and adoption. AtlasVPN continue to report higher crypto-hack growth rates.
Some Major 2022 Q1 Phishing Attacks
There seem to be no let up, no one is spared, normies, experts, Dapps, Chains, DEX etc and despite the slump in price of crypto and tokens in 2022-Q1 crime and hacks continued its growth. According to Techcrunch 2022 Q1 saw crypto losses spike 695% year-on-year, some 2022 Q1 losses include
1. Wormhole, a popular cryptocurrency platform that offers bridges between multiple blockchains, announced it suffered an attack that exploited the bridge between the Ethereum and Solana blockchains and redirected around $320 million worth of ETH to crypto wallets that don’t belong to the Wormhole team.
2. In February 2022, users of NFT marketplace OpenSea were a victim of phishing attack to the tune of $1.7m in ETH.
3. In March 2022, users of Axie Infinity sidechain Ronin Network were victims of phishing attackers who stole 173,600 Ethereum and 25.5 million USDC worth over $600m argueably the biggest ever phishing hack in the history of crypto.
The Threat to Crypto
No surprises that, this relatively higher crime rate is not going unnoticed, by regulatory hawks and rightly so, no government will simply allow this to continue without intervention, and therein lies the big problem- What kind of interventions is crypto crime inviting, outright bans are on the table and has seen increase, and increased calls for stricter regulatory climes. Recently Janet Yellen — The U.S Treasury Secretary suggested while speaking in American University in Washington that Crypto scams and increased fraud cases, are forcing governments to regulate the crypto industry.
Bad Boys –by Bob Marley starts to play in the background “Bad boys, bad boys whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do? When they come for you?” ( Lyrics) listen here. Sorry just making a bad situation light, luckily there are a few things that can be done to reduce the risk; read on.
So What can you do to protect yourself from Phishing attacks
I have read many ways to reduce the risk, one I have not read though is moderate your expectations (i.e. “Be less greedy” greed plays a key part in most crypto phishing attacks), if you cannot moderate your expectations, there’s probably not much the list below can do for you, although a BlockWallet Phishing Protection feature will protect your crypto wallet, you need totally out phishing in all ramifications. So back to how to avoid phishing attacks
1. Employ common sense before handing over sensitive information.
2. Never trust alarming messages.
3. Do not open unsolicited attachments or from known senders.
4. Avoid clicking embedded links.
5. Keep your software and operating system up to date.
6. Read your mails and messages carefully paying attention to details
7. Keep your private keys securely, on a physical paper away from your device.
8. Strong passwords and 2-factor authentications.
9. Deal with reputable companies this is critical in Crypto, too many outright scam companies.
Get a Wallet with Phishing Protection like BlockWallet
CAVEAT:
· Note- This is not a financial investment advice.
· All financial investments involve risk DYOR (Do your own research) before making any financial investments.
· This article is my thoughts and opinion about the subject matter.
References
1. Sigalos, M. Crypto scammers took a record $14 billion in 2021.(2022,01,06). https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/06/crypto-scammers-took-a-record-14-billion-in-2021-chainalysis.html
2. William, S. Blockchain hackers stole nearly $1.3 billion in Q1 2022 (2022,03,06)- https://atlasvpn.com/blog/blockchain-hackers-stole-nearly-700-million-in-q1-2022
3. Faife, C. The Verge, Hackers breached Mailchimp to phish cryptocurrency wallets. (2022.04.04) https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/4/23010317/hackers-mailchimp-trezor-cryptocurrency-phishing
4. Nambiampurath, R. BeinCrypto, OpenSea CEO Clarifies Phishing Attack Did Not Originate on Platform. (2022.02.21) https://beincrypto.com/opensea-ceo-clarifies-phishing-attack-did-not-originate-on-platform/
5. DeMatteo, M. NextAdvisor. Scammers Stole $14 Billion in Crypto in 2021. Here’s How Investors Can Protect Their Coins. (2022,01,06) https://time.com/nextadvisor/investing/cryptocurrency/common-crypto-scams/
6. Muchai, F. Cryptopolitan.(2022,04,07). Janet Yellen calls for crypto regulation based on risk and not technology. https://www.cryptopolitan.com/janet-yellen-crypto-regulation-based-on-risk/
7. Melinek, J. Techcrunch. Q1 crypto losses spike 695% on year following massive hacks. (2022,04,04), https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/04/q1-crypto-losses-spike-695-on-year-following-massive-hacks/
8. Melinek, J. Techcrunch. Axie Infinity’s Ronin network suffers ≈$625M exploit in largest DeFi hack to date.(2022.03.29). https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/29/axie-infinitys-ronin-network-suffers-%e2%89%88625m-exploit-in-largest-defi-hack-to-date/
9. BlockWallet. Introducing BlockWallet Phishing Protection. https://blockwallet.medium.com/introducing-blockwallet-phishing-protection-69d1b284e90
10. https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/preemptive-safety/phishing-prevention-tips
11. https://markshirecrypto.com/crypto-security/how-to-protect-against-cryptocurrency-phishing-attacks/
