By George Ward
Malicious individuals and entities are increasingly targeting the digital asset industry, with the cyber-attack rate becoming more widespread. According to a recent report by the Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, actors have shifted their focus to phishing players in the crypto space by reducing traditional strategies like PC malware.
Consequently, there has been a 40% increase over the last 12 months in phishing activities across the crypto space.
Crypto Phishing Attacks On The Rise
The cybersecurity and anti-virus solutions provider revealed that phishing attacks in the crypto space spiked by 40% year-on-year. According to Kaspersky, it has detected over 5 million crypto-related phishing attempts in 2022 compared to nearly 3.6 million, which was seen in 2021.
Highlighting how phishing attacks occur, the firm noted that a typical exploit involves contacting unsuspecting crypto investors using fake websites and communication platforms imitating the original companies. The attackers will then prompt the users to proceed by sharing their personal information, like private keys, which ultimately give the hackers access to the victim’s wallets and crypto funds.
However, Kaspersky was unable to predict if the trends would continue this year, but available reports indicate that phishing attacks have continued to gain momentum in 2023. Last month, the crypto hardware wallet maker, Trezor cautioned its users to be more security conscious regarding their user details as it has recorded several attempts from bad actors attempting to steal their digital assets.
The crypto wallet maker revealed that attackers are attempting to lure investors into inputting their recovery text using a fake Trezor website. Recently, an attacker sent Arbitrum investors a phishing link through the network’s official Discord server.
The hacker reportedly compromised the Discord account of one of the developers, which was used to share a fake statement with a malicious link.
Why Crypto Phishing Attacks Persist
Kaspersky noted that the increasing attacks on the sector are partly due to last year’s crypto market bloodbath. However, it pointed out that the reason for this year’s rising trend is still undecided, but the likeliest factor is the increasing adoption and trust in the crypto market.
According to Kaspersky, one in every seven individuals is affected by crypto phishing. Since most crypto-related phishing attacks employed traditional tricks like a giveaway, the cyber security firm revealed that scammers are developing new techniques to target unsuspecting wallet holders.
As the Russia-based cybersecurity firm further revealed, the hacker’s new trick is sending potential victims a PDF file in English by mail, which shows that they registered on a crypto mining platform long ago. According to Olga Svistunova, a security expert at Kaspersky, the attackers will convince the receiver that they have significant crypto assets in the accounts, which they need to withdraw since the address is inactive.
Meanwhile, the file contains links to a fake mining pool where the withdrawal will take place; Users are then required to fill out a form containing their personal information and pay a commission via a crypto wallet.
However, Svistunova noted that despite the challenges of preventing scams and what has happened in the sector in recent months, many still believe that crypto is the fastest way to get rich quickly with little effort.