Cryptocurrency Platforms Observe Fresh Rounds of Cyber Attacks

The recent boom in the prices of cryptocurrencies has led to an increase in the incidents of cyber-attacks by cybercriminals. This campaign has continuously target cryptocurrency platforms and exchanges using a wide variety of tactics. The campaign was discovered by Bitdefender Antispam Lab researchers who discovered an ongoing phishing campaign targeting Coinbase platform users in an attempt to steal their account credentials and drain their cryptocurrency wallets.

In fact, since mid-February, there have been over 25,000 attacks on Coinbase users. These activities originated from India (69%), Brazil (13.73%), the U.S. (10%), and Japan (2.33%). They have been in the form of phishing emails which have targeted users from South Korea (54.72%), Sweden (12.53%), Ireland (7%), Japan (6.78%), the U.S. (5.12%), Great Britain (2.81%), and Canada (2.16%).

These phishing emails have come in the form of fake notifications, warning recipients of unusual activity in their account, requiring immediate action/verification from users who wish to regain access to the platform. These fake login pages ask users to input their credentials, which leads to a subsequent hijack of the account by hackers. 

Coinbase is not the only cryptocurrency platform to experience cyberattacks since last month. Crypto lending platform BlockFi reportedly was spammed with fake sign-ups and abusive language. Also, Tether had suffered a data breach and forged documents were identified circulating online. EXMO cryptocurrency exchange servers also suffered a massive DDoS attack, which resulted in a temporary suspension of their services.

DDoS and data theft attacks have also been noted alongside phishing and impersonation attacks. 

The growing threat of hacks and cyberattacks against cryptocurrency platforms has led experts to recommend users to be wary of the existence of these threats as well as staying away from unsolicited correspondence and double-checking web URLs before signing in. 

Reference:https://cyware.com/news/cryptocurrency-platforms-witness-another-round-of-cyber-threats-c30e8cbb