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Social engineering is a set of techniques used by cybercriminals to lure unaware users to send their confidential data, infect their computers with malware or open links to infected sites. The term phishing is a variant of fishing and refers to the use of “fishing” techniques in order to acquire users’ financial data and password by pretending to be a renowned user or company.
Starting from 2020, especially after the cryptocurrencies boom, we are witnessing much more phishing attacks.
Bored Apes
The most trending NFT collection on the market, Bored Apes Yacht Club, suffered one of the largest phishing attacks ever at the beginning of May 2022, for an amount of $6 million. We know social networks’ strength, their ease of communication and marketing construction. The hacker indeed took advantage of the network popularity to enter the Bored Apes Instagram official profile; as reported by TheBlock, the hacker managed to steal 133 NFTs by promoting a fake airdrop, promising virtual lands if users connected their Metamask wallets to the published address.
Yuga Labs, the company behind BAYC, tweeted the fact assuring that all security measures, such as 2-Factor Authentication, were in place. However, that was not enough to stop the malicious actor. A research conducted by Twitter user @zachxbt led to three addresses that were later cleaned up on Tornado Cash, the popular decentralized mixer.
Beeple
Popular NFT artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, also suffered a phishing hack on his Twitter account. Harry Denley, security analyst at MetaMask, alerted users that Beeple's tweets including a link to an alleged NFT draw in collaboration with Louis Vuitton were actually a scam which, if clicked, would have stolen cryptocurrencies held in users wallets. The scammers took advantage of the recent collaboration between Beeple and Louis Vuitton in “Louis The Game” to get hold of 40+ Ether and many high-value NFTs, such as Mutant Ape Yacht Club, VeeFriends and Otherdeed.
A report by the cybersecurity company Malwarebytes highlights a dramatic increase of phishing cases, indicating the correlation with NFTs. The company has found that the use of fraudulent websites, presented as legitimate platforms, is the most common strategy used by hackers in recent years, to which could be added legal disputes, as in the case of Seth Green. The well-known actor, owner of BAYC #8398 and MAYC #9964 & #19182, had just promoted a show based on the NFTs in question, which had been afterwards stolen on May 17, 2022. However, Yuga Labs project guarantees to NFTs owners only the intellectual property and the license to use, copy and resell, hence, based on the legal section of the IP rights (copyright law), if the show starts Seth Green would be also criminally liable. Therefore, the show was blocked indefinitely.
Cybersecurity threats
Cybersecurity sector has been constantly growing lately. Everyday cyber attacks are on the agenda. The latest researches present worrying statistics indeed:
- 94% of malwares is delivered via email.
- 85% of cybersecurity breaches are caused by human errors.
- A ransomware attack occurs every 10 seconds.
- Cybercrime's annual global losses are expected to reach $10.5 trilion by 2025.
Also, blockchain’s use cases are endless, and understanding the way to make this technology even more efficient is just the beginning.
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Cybersecurity vs Blockchain is an in-depth series about the most trending hacks in recent history. Below a comprehensive list of the ones we have been talking about:
Sources:
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/143328/bored-ape-instagram-account-hacked-nfts-worth-2-8-million-stolen
https://www.indiewire.com/2022/05/seth-green-stolen-nft-1234729399/
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/crypto/2022/05/airdrop-phishing-what-is-it-and-how-is-my-cryptocurrency-at-risk/