Phishing, one of the main weapons of cybercriminals who want to scam cryptocurrency users to steal their funds, is becoming popular on crypto exchange platforms.
PhishLabs, the digital risk protection solutions and intelligence company, published a recent report showing that phishing attacks in the crypto industry, mainly aimed at exchanges and exchange platforms cryptocurrencies, , grew by 22% during the first half of the year, compared to the same period in 2020.
According to the data of the report qualified “Quarterly Threat Intelligence and Trends,” published this month, cryptocurrencies and digital assets continue to be targeted by cybercriminals. During the second quarter of the year, Phishing attacks in the crypto industry grew 10 times compared to the first quarter of 2021, indicated the analysis firm. In addition, he noted that a large part of the phishing attacks on social networks were directed at the cryptocurrency sector. Cybercriminals are apparently taking advantage of the rapid growth of this industry to pose as cryptocurrency businesses in order to confuse and scam unsuspecting users.
Phishing attacks targeting the crypto industry particularly focused on “a combination of brand, executive and employee impersonation attacks,” indicated the firm. More than half of the phishing attacks and scams executed during the first half of the year in the crypto industry were carried out using phishing.
Phishing is a deception strategy by malicious actors where they impersonate employees or executives of a company or brand to deceive victims, making them believe that they are speaking with an authentic person from a certain company. The objective of this attack is to make people share their credentials or confidential information, such as passwords, codes, among others, to access their accounts illegally and steal funds. The most common means by which phishing is carried out are phone calls, emails and manipulation of websites, commonly in advertisements.
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Social networks: the main attack vector today
Social media is becoming the primary phishing attack vector for cryptocurrency companies, PhishLabs said. According to the firm, since the beginning of this year, companies that offer services with cryptoassets and that maintain active accounts on social networks experienced, on average, about 34 phishing attacks through these platforms every month. However, in June the average number of phishing attacks approached 50 attacks per company, which represents an increase of 47% during the first half of 2021.
Furthermore, the phishing directed at the Office365 computing tool It is also becoming popular this year. According to the data, 51% of corporate user credential theft attacks were focused on Office365 accounts.
El Single sign-on (SSO) is also another of the main attack vectors for cybercriminals. PhishLabs notes that SSO is increasingly attractive to bad actors, with 45% of HXNUMX's phishing attacks targeting accounts commonly used for SSO. The continued rise in SSO phishing attacks suggests that criminals recognize that compromising an account used for single sign-on can give them access to many more secondary accounts that rely on the SSO account for authentication.
John LaCour, founder and CTO of PhishLabs, said that every day bad actors continue to use phishing to scam victims and are also developing new, much more sophisticated ways to perfect their scam techniques. The cryptocurrency sector and sites that use single sign-on are the most common targets, LaCour noted.
Phishing in cryptocurrencies
In the 12 years that the crypto industry has been around, many phishing attacks have been executed to scam unsuspecting users. However, one of the best-known and largest attacks in the industry is that of Ledger.
The data leak suffered by Ledger, the largest manufacturer of hardware wallets of cryptocurrencies in the world, in July 2020 caused a massive wave of phishing in the crypto industry. Data from more than 1 million users of the company were exposed to cybercriminals, who began to send emails and text messages and make phone calls to scam wallet users. There are even those who received fake and manipulated Ledger devices in their homes, without having requested anything from the company. Physical and kidnapping threats were also part of the attacks on Ledger clients.
About PhishLabs
PhishLabs is a cyber threat intelligence company founded in 2008, which is dedicated to offering services and solutions against the threats of brand and company impersonation, account and login control, and data leakage. In the first half of this year, PhishLabs analyzed and mitigated hundreds of thousands of spoofing and data theft attacks targeting business brands and corporate employees, as well as attacks based on HTTPS and free email accounts such as Gmail and Hotmail. .
Continue reading: Ledger team warns of possible phishing attack in progress
