With digital currency, you can directly send and receive money while encrypting your transactional data. But your digital wallet should have an extreme level of security to be inaccessible to hackers. How can cybercriminals steal your digital assets, and what can you do to protect yourself?
Phishing
Phishing is a kind of attack in which the victim himself hands over sensitive information and gets scammed. It can happen by the falsification of legit websites to make them look like original and authentic websites. Those fake websites will have a domain name similar to the authentic and relevant websites.
The hackers will pretend to have an interest in the exchange of cryptocurrency. The target can also receive “confirmation emails” that are linked with fake crypto websites. When the potential target enters his personal details, the authentication data will be stolen from him.
Therefore, check the domain spellings and SSL certificate before entering your sensitive information.
Malware
Now, various versions of malware are used by hackers to infect target operating systems. Hackers send keyloggers to target devices to steal their crypto wallet passwords and other personal information. Some viruses detect the copied cryptocurrency addresses. Those addresses are swapped with the wallet addresses of hackers.
If the interchange turns out successful, the cryptocurrencies of the target person go to the unintended address controlled by the hacker.
Moreover, the technique of cross-scripting injection into web pages results in the stealth of noticeable information. When the user enters the infected website, he is redirected to the malicious website that steals the user information. It’s important to use a crypto wallet with an extreme level of protection, such as Crypterium, to keep your assets safe.
Stealth of Secret Keys
The performance of financial operations in cryptocurrency depends on the pair of keys. There are two keys: Public Key and Private Key. The private key is only accessible to the user. It is used to authorize all the digital transactions of cryptocurrency.
Whereas the public key is used to confirm the authenticity of a private one. The private key is present in the wallet of the target person. If he loses access to that key, he cannot use his assets no matter what.
If someone retrieves the private key, he can transfer all the money into his account. Since the crypto transactions are not traceable, the victim will never find any source, and all the money will be lost.
Therefore, hackers use all the possible ways to access the private key, starting from the applications having spelling checker and browser extension. Hackers also take advantage of the common system vulnerabilities to access the key.
The most vulnerable key is the one that is connected to the internet and running on a centralized system. Moreover, secure wallets are the ones with separate hardware devices without any internet connection.