In the digital age, when terabytes of our personal information are stored on the Internet, it is possible and necessary to talk about cybersecurity.

Negligent attitude to the storage of your private data can lead not only to moral but also to material damage. Scammers are always happy to take advantage of the user’s inattention.

Concerning cryptocurrencies, hackers carry out attacks not only to steal assets from accounts but also to collapse the exchange rate of the crypto.

Let’s look at several ways that fraudsters can use to steal your data or assets from your account

  • One of the most common ways to steal access to a crypto wallet is fishing.

As a rule, this option is used to gain access to the accounts of various special services exchanges. This method is so popular because private access keys are stored on the company’s server.

Therefore, to gain access to user wallets, scammers create imitations of authorization pages.

Usually, they are difficult to distinguish from the original sites (except for the URL).

The number of such pages is colossal because almost every exchange has dozens of such “doubles.” If a user gets a page and enters authentication data, then all the information is already in the hands of scammers.

  • The mailing of letters on behalf of crypto wallet services is no less popular.

One day you receive an email with the text that a certain number of bonuses have been received to your account, and all you need is to click on the link, log in and get them. Five minutes and the attackers already have all your data.

The second version of the text notifies the user that his data has been uploaded to hacker resources.

To prevent theft, you mustn’t click on the link and enter personal information!

According to this scenario, in 2018, there was a theft of 580 billion yen from the accounts of the Coincheck exchange. The attackers sent letters to the emails of several employees of the company. Later, it turned out that viruses got onto computers due to the opening of emails that contributed to the theft of assets.

  • Youtube and cryptocurrency theft.

There is such a type of virus as “Trojan horse”. They restrict access to various banking sites, periodically take screenshots, monitor keystrokes, and the clipboard.

This type of virus uses pop-ups and forms, forcing people to make decisions urgently and quickly. The reason may be a software update, a request from the bank, or simply clicking on the link in the description on Youtube.

According to the facts above, you might think that, at least, users of hardware wallets must be insured against the tricks of intruders. But, unfortunately, this is not the case.

In December 2020, fraudsters sent fake devices to users of Ledger hardware crypto wallets.

The package came in branded packaging; there were instructions for using the device and itself, respectively. The instructions stated that the company was sending new devices for security purposes and that the violation would never happen again.

The fact is that shortly before this incident, data on more than 270 thousand users were published on the hacker forum RaidForums, which further served as an explanation for sending a new device.

Everything described above is just the tip of the iceberg. Therefore, to prevent such unpleasant situations, it is necessary:

  • Use only official pages and                        applications
  • Don’t give personal data, passwords, codes, etc., to anyone under any pretext.
  • Don’t follow unfamiliar links, even those that come to you personally by mai

Remember that your safety is in your hands!

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO IF YOU DISCOVERED A HACK OF YOUR CRYPTO WALLET?

It would seem that you followed all the instructions, the code wasn’t shown to anyone and wasn’t transmitted, but the fact remains that the money was debited from the account.

  • First and foremost, don’t panic!

Of course, in most cases, if an attacker gets hold of your assets, then you can forget about your savings. Since most likely, the stolen currency is mixed with “white” currency, after which, even with the transparency of the blockchain, it’s impossible to track transactions.

In the case of non-custodial wallets, the funds cannot be returned.

If the wallet was on the exchange, then everything depends only on its managers.

As a rule, the exchange can return the stolen, but only from its own pocket, as was in the case with Bitfinex. After a major hack, the exchange had to return the money to the victims to restore their reputation.

However, if the exchange has gone bankrupt, then there will be nothing to take from it.

For example, former users of the Japanese Mt.Gox (25,000 people), after hacking, didn’t see their money.

  • A hardfork is another alternative method for a refund. 

The principle of operation: a rollback of the blockchain to the moment shortly before the hack and the creation of an alternative, safety chain.

The hard fork was used in 2016 when hackers hacked and withdrew $43.9 million from The Dao project. However, the developers don’t sympathize with this technology, because it contradicts the idea of the irreversibility of the blockchain.