Cybercriminals increasingly targeting cryptocurrency
Cybercriminals increasingly targeting cryptocurrency
Cybercriminals increasingly targeting cryptocurrency
– Date: 11-Jun-2022
– Source: Zawya
– Sector: [Financial Markets]
– Country: [UAE]
Cybercriminals increasingly targeting cryptocurrency
Studies by Proofpoint have found that both of these threat types contributed to around $14 billion in cryptocurrency losses in 2021. In fact, BEC topped the list of types of attacks CISOs in the UAE expect to face in the coming months, with 35 per cent of CISOs being concerned about potential BEC attacks.
Sherrod DeGrippo, vice president of Threat Research and Detection at Proofpoint, explained that the financially motivated attacks targeting cryptocurrencies have largely coalesced under pre-existing attack patterns observed in the phishing landscape prior to the rise of blockchain based currency.
“Common techniques observed when targeting cryptocurrency over email include credential harvesting, the use of basic malware stealers that target cryptocurrency credentials and cryptocurrency transfer solicitation like BEC,” she revealed. “These techniques are viable methods of capturing sensitive values which facilitate the transfer and spending of cryptocurrency.”
There are multiple DeFi applications and platforms – such as cryptocurrency exchanges – that people can use to manage their cryptocurrency, she added. “These platforms often require usernames and passwords, which are potential targets for financially motivated threat actors.
Despite public keys being safe to share, researchers are seeing actors solicit the transfer of cryptocurrency funds via BEC type emails that include threat actor controlled
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