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Cryptocurrency and cybersecurity
Cybercrime incidents are on the rise year after year – there doesn't seem to be a slowdown for Internet criminals.Cryptocurrency and cybersecurity
With the advent of cryptocurrency, these cybercriminals now have new aspirations and new motivations for their criminal activities online.
Moreover, the rise of cryptocurrencies has led to the creation of new types of criminal activity.
Cryptojacking, Ransomware and various other similar activities have a direct correlation with the growth of cryptojacking.
Cryptocurrency traders are also targeted – because some of them are the first traders to be tempted by the massive price increases that cryptocurrencies can offer.
Current cybercriminals now use tactics as simple as the old phishing methods to steal crypto money.
Sometimes these attacks have a more advanced level, such as exchanging cryptocurrencies, obtaining hacked data, or ransomware attacks.
Let's take a closer look at how cryptocurrencies pose a threat to cybersecurity.
Cryptocurrency and cybercriminal
Below are some of the most common criminal activities related to cryptocurrencies.A clickjack
A criminal offense, mainly when websites are injected with malicious code that runs cryptocurrencies, using the processing power of the Central processor of site visitors!
Clickjacking is on the rise, and recent high-profile cases include the Google Chrome extension, where hundreds of thousands of users are infected.
Specific YouTube commercials were also caught when running this script, which caused launch operations to be performed when the ad was displayed.
Ransomware
exist for a short time – but with cryptocurrencies they have picked up their pace of development.
An aggressive attack encrypts all your files, and the key to decrypt these files is shared with criminals.
You cannot decrypt or access files on your computer before entering the key.
These cybercriminals often demand ransoms to be paid in cryptocurrency – and they give out the key after they receive the cryptocurrencies.
These attacks were on the rise, the most notorious of which crippled some hospital systems in the US.
Hacking of cryptocurrency exchanges
Hackers are also constantly increasing the frequency of cryptocurrency exchanges.
The cryptocurrency exchange has been hacked for quite some time – the first one is Mt. Gox hacked back in 2014, and the most recent one was hacked by Coincchck, which is the most significant cryptocurrency hack of all time, when hackers made off with $ 500 million worth of cryptocurrencies.
Countries around the world are setting stricter security standards and ensuring that exchanges comply with these standards.
Phishing attacks
While this may seem a bit old-school, phishing attacks do too – causing a lot of damage.
Users who don't have a proper 2FA system may end up giving them access to their exchange or wallet codes to hackers – who can easily get away with cryptocurrencies.
A recent attack on Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, saw the use of a phishing attack – however, in this case, hackers lost money, but not everyone was so lucky!
Twitter Impersonation
In one of the most low-cost crimes designed to attract first-rate users and gullible Internet users, Twitter crooks impersonate popular accounts like Vitalik Buterin, Charlie Lee, and Elon Musk among others-asking for 0.2 ETH from users and promising to send them 2 ETH in return.
While this is an obvious Scam for most users – it's surprising to see how many people fall for it when you look at the details of a wallet transaction.
How do I stay protected?
At a time when cyber-criminal activity is at its peak, there is an urgent need to take appropriate security measures.
Here are some tips that you can use to protect yourself from actions related to cryptocurrencies:
Don't upload attachments from an unknown sender
These attachments may contain malicious files attached to them – sometimes even a harmless jpeg image may have a ransomware app attached to it.
Most ransomware is distributed via email, which makes it critical only to download attachments from people you trust.
Remember that there is no FREE money
So many people fall victim to those scammers who pretend to be Elon Musk or Vitalik Buterin.
There is no free money, and no one gives it away !
Even the guaranteed profit from investment fraud encourages such users to ask them to Deposit a certain amount and get a guaranteed profit in exchange.
Anyone who asks you for money to pay you back more is a fraud!
Configuring 2FA protection
The necessary security is that setting up the system ensures that even if your password is compromised, hackers will not be able to access your account and transfer cryptocurrency without having access to another device that you have.
This second form of authentication can be in the form of Google Authenticator, email, or even a text message.
After entering the password, this second authentication must be granted before logging in.
Don't forget to back up your data
Precautions are better than treatment!
A regular backup of your data is essential for its security, especially files that are of great value.
Even in this case, attacks where ransomware infects your computer; because of these regular backups, all your data remains safe.
Using hardware wallets
Nowadays, both the security measures of a cryptocurrency exchange and any online storage platform are not really in the hands of the user.
The best way to save your currency is to store it in a hardware wallet.
Hardware wallets are the actual physical devices on which cryptocurrency is stored, and they can remain disconnected from the Internet when not in use – keeping them safe from any attacks.
Conclusion
In addition to criminal cyber activities, cryptocurrencies have also been linked to other illegal activities, such as financing terrorists and facilitating illegal trade – something that many countries have criticized the cryptocurrency for.
Cryptocurrencies have been the preferred payment method in darknet markets for many years.
In addition to this, another important problem that international governments face with the emergence of crypto money tags is that it also leads to an increase in corruption, as well as money laundering – due to the anonymous nature of crypto transactions, money can be hidden in different crypto wallets without proper disclosure.
