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Microsoft Corp. is investigating reports that attackers are exploiting two previously unknown vulnerabilities in Exchange Server, a technology many organizations rely on to send and receive email. Microsoft says it is expediting work on software patches to plug the security holes. In the meantime, it is urging a subset of Exchange customers to enable a setting that could help mitigate ongoing attacks.
In customer guidance released Thursday, Microsoft said it is investigating two reported zero-day flaws affecting Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, 2016, and 2019. CVE-2022-41040, is a Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability that can enable an authenticated attacker to remotely trigger the second zero-day vulnerability — CVE-2022-41082 — which allows remote code execution (RCE) when PowerShell is accessible to the attacker.
Microsoft said Exchange Online has detections and mitigation in place to protect customers. Customers using on-premises Microsoft Exchange servers are urged to review the mitigations suggested in the security advisory, which Microsoft says should block the known attack patterns.
Vietnamese security firm GTSC on Thursday published a writeup on the two Exchange zero-day flaws, saying it first observed the attacks in early August being used to drop “webshells.” These web-based backdoors offer attackers an easy-to-use, password-protected hacking tool that can be accessed over the Internet from any browser.
“We detected webshells, mostly obfuscated, being dropped to Exchange servers,” GTSC wrote. “Using the user-agent, we detected that the attacker uses Antsword, an active Chinese-based opensource cross-platform website administration tool that supports webshell management. We suspect that these come from a Chinese attack group because the webshell codepage is 936, which is a Microsoft character encoding for simplified Chinese.”
GTSC’s advisory includes details about post-compromise activity and related malware, as well as steps it took to help customers respond to active compromises of their Exchange Server environment. But the company said it would withhold more technical details of the vulnerabilities for now.
In March 2021, hundreds of thousands of organizations worldwide had their email stolen and multiple backdoor webshells installed, all thanks to four zero-day vulnerabilities in Exchange Server.
Granted, the zero-day flaws that powered that debacle were far more critical than the two detailed this week, and there are no signs yet that exploit code has been publicly released (that will likely change soon). But part of what made last year’s Exchange Server mass hack so pervasive was that vulnerable organizations had little or no advance notice on what to look for before their Exchange Server environments were completely owned by multiple attackers.
Microsoft is quick to point out that these zero-day flaws require an attacker to have a valid username and password for an Exchange user, but this may not be such a tall order for the hackers behind these latest exploits against Exchange Server.
Steven Adair is president of Volexity, the Virginia-based cybersecurity firm that was among the first to sound the alarm about the Exchange zero-days targeted in the 2021 mass hack. Adair said GTSC’s writeup includes an Internet address used by the attackers that Volexity has tied with high confidence to a China-based hacking group that has recently been observed phishing Exchange users for their credentials.
In February 2022, Volexity warned that this same Chinese hacking group was behind the mass exploitation of a zero-day vulnerability in the Zimbra Collaboration Suite, which is a competitor to Microsoft Exchange that many enterprises use to manage email and other forms of messaging.
If your organization runs Exchange Server, please consider reviewing the Microsoft mitigations and the GTSC post-mortem on their investigations.
ESET researchers have discovered Lazarus attacks against targets in the Netherlands and Belgium that use spearphishing emails connected to fake job offers
The post Amazon‑themed campaigns of Lazarus in the Netherlands and Belgium appeared first on WeLiveSecurity
How's this weeks video for a view?! It's a stunning location here in Bali and it's just been the absolute most perfect spot for a honeymoon, especially after weeks of guests and celebrations. But whoever hacked and ransom'd Optus didn't care about me taking time out and I've done more media in the last week than I have in a long time. I don't mind, it's a fascinating story the way this has unfolded and that's where most of the time in this week's video has gone, I hope you enjoy my analysis of what has become a pretty crazy story back home in Australia.
Someone has recently created a large number of fake LinkedIn profiles for Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) roles at some of the world’s largest corporations. It’s not clear who’s behind this network of fake CISOs or what their intentions may be. But the fabricated LinkedIn identities are confusing search engine results for CISO roles at major companies, and they are being indexed as gospel by various downstream data-scraping sources.
If one searches LinkedIn for the CISO of the energy giant Chevron, one might find the profile for a Victor Sites, who says he’s from Westerville, Ohio and is a graduate of Texas A&M University.
The LinkedIn profile for Victor Sites, who is most certainly NOT the CISO of Chevron.
Of course, Sites is not the real CISO of Chevron. That role is currently occupied by Christopher Lukas of Danville, Calif. If you were confused at this point, you might ask Google who it thinks is the current Chief Information Security Officer of Chevron. When KrebsOnSecurity did that earlier this morning, the fake CISO profile was the very first search result returned (followed by the LinkedIn profile for the real Chevron CISO).
Helpfully, LinkedIn seems to be able to detect something in common about all these fake CISO profiles, because it suggested I view a number of them in the “People Also Viewed” column seen in the image above. There are two fake CISO profiles suggested there, including one for a Maryann Robles, who claims to be the CISO of another energy giant — ExxonMobil.
Maryann’s profile says she’s from Tupelo, Miss., and includes this detail about how she became a self-described “old-school geek.”
“Since playing Tradewars on my Tandy 1000 with a 300 baud modem in the early ’90s, I’ve had a lifelong passion for technology, which I’ve carried with me as Deputy CISO of the world’s largest health plan,” her profile reads.
However, this description appears to have been lifted from the profile for the real CISO at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in Baltimore, Md.
Interestingly, Maryann’s LinkedIn profile was accepted as truth by Cybercrime Magazine’s CISO 500 listing, which claims to maintain a list of the current CISOs at America’s largest companies:
The fake CISO for ExxOnMobil was indexed in Cybercrime Magazine’s CISO 500.
Rich Mason, the former CISO at Fortune 500 firm Honeywell, began warning his colleagues on LinkedIn about the phony profiles earlier this week.
“It’s interesting the downstream sources that repeat LinkedIn bogus content as truth,” Mason said. “This is dangerous, Apollo.io, Signalhire, and Cybersecurity Ventures.”
Google wasn’t fooled by the phony LinkedIn profile for Jennie Biller, who claims to be CISO at biotechnology giant Biogen (the real Biogen CISO is Russell Koste). But Biller’s profile is worth mentioning because it shows how some of these phony profiles appear to be quite hastily assembled. Case in point: Biller’s name and profile photo suggest she is female, however the “About” description of her accomplishments uses male pronouns. Also, it might help that Jennie only has 18 connections on LinkedIn.
Again, we don’t know much about who or what is behind these profiles, but in August the security firm Mandiant (recently acquired by Google) told Bloomberg that hackers working for the North Korean government have been copying resumes and profiles from leading job listing platforms LinkedIn and Indeed, as part of an elaborate scheme to land jobs at cryptocurrency firms.
None of the profiles listed here responded to requests for comment (or to become a connection).
In a statement provided to KrebsOnSecurity, LinkedIn said its teams were actively working to take these fake accounts down.
“We do have strong human and automated systems in place, and we’re continually improving, as fake account activity becomes more sophisticated,” the statement reads. “In our transparency report we share how our teams plus automated systems are stopping the vast majority of fraudulent activity we detect in our community – around 96% of fake accounts and around 99.1% of spam and scam.”
LinkedIn could take one simple step that would make it far easier for people to make informed decisions about whether to trust a given profile: Add a “created on” date for every profile. Twitter does this, and it’s enormously helpful for filtering out a great deal of noise and unwanted communications.
The former CISO Mason said LinkedIn also could experiment with offering something akin to Twitter’s verified mark to users who chose to validate that they can respond to email at the domain associated with their stated current employer.
“If I saw that a LinkedIn profile had been domain-validated, then my confidence in that profile would go way up,” Mason said, noting that many of the fake profiles had hundreds of followers, including dozens of real CISOs. Maryann’s profile grew by a hundred connections in just the past few days, he said.
“If we have CISOs that are falling for this, what hopes do the masses have?” Mason said.
Mason said LinkedIn also needs a more streamlined process for allowing employers to remove phony employee accounts. He recently tried to get a phony profile removed from LinkedIn for someone who falsely claimed to have worked for his company.
“I shot a note to LinkedIn and said please remove this, and they said, well, we have to contact that person and arbitrate this,” he said. “They gave the guy two weeks and he didn’t respond, so they took it down. But that doesn’t scale, and there needs to be a mechanism where an employer can contact LinkedIn and have these fake profiles taken down in less than two weeks.”
How do hackers hack phones? Several ways. Just as there are several ways you can prevent it from happening to you.
The thing is that our phones are like little treasure chests. They’re loaded with plenty of personal data, and we use them to shop, bank, and take care of other personal and financial matters—all of which are of high value to identity thieves.
However, you can protect yourself and your phone by knowing what to look out for and by taking a few simple steps. Let’s break it down by first taking a look at some of the more common attacks.
Whether hackers sneak it onto your phone by physically accessing your phone or by tricking you into installing it via a phony app, a sketchy website, or a phishing attack, hacking software can create problems for you in a couple of ways:
Some possible signs of hacking software on your phone include:
In all, hacking software can eat up system resources, create conflicts with other apps, and use your data or internet connection to pass along your personal information into the hands of hackers—all of which can lead to some of the symptoms listed above.
These are a classic form of attack. In fact, hackers have leveled them at our computers for years now too. Phishing is where hackers impersonate a company or trusted individual to get access to your accounts or personal info or both. And these attacks take many forms, like emails, texts, instant messages, and so forth, some of which can look really legitimate. Common to them are links to bogus sites that attempt to trick you into handing over that info or that install malware to wreak havoc on your device or likewise steal information. Learning how to spot a phishing attack is one way to keep yourself from falling victim to one.
Professional hackers can use dedicated technologies that search for vulnerable mobile devices with an open Bluetooth connection. Hackers can pull off these attacks when they are range of your phone, up to 30 feet away, usually in a populated area. When hackers make a Bluetooth connection to your phone, they can possibly access your data and info, yet that data and info must be downloaded while the phone is within range. As you probably gathered, this is a more sophisticated attack given the effort and technology involved.
In August of 2019, the CEO of Twitter had his SIM card hacked by SIM card swapping scam. SIM card swapping occurs when a hacker contacts your phone provider, pretends to be you, and then asks for a replacement SIM card. Once the provider sends the new SIM to the hacker, the old SIM card will be deactivated, and your phone number will be effectively stolen. This means the hacker has taken control of your phone calls, messages, and so forth. This method of hacking requires the seemingly not-so-easy task of impersonating someone else, yet clearly, it happened to the CEO of a major tech company. Protecting your personal info and identity online can help prevent hackers from impersonating you to pull off this and other crimes.
While there are several ways a hacker can get into your phone and steal personal and critical information, here are a few tips to keep that from happening:
The post How Do Hackers Hack Phones and How Can I Prevent It? appeared first on McAfee Blog.
McAfee’s Secure VPN now supports the WireGuard protocol, which gives you faster connection speeds plus enhanced stability and security.
WireGuard is the latest standard in Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology, and we’re rolling it out across McAfee Secure VPN for Windows which is included in our comprehensive online protection plans. And just as before, it offers smart protection that can be set to automatically turn on when you need it, so you can stay more private and more secure online.
If you’re new to using a VPN, let’s take a quick look at two of the big things a VPN can do for you.
The bank-grade encryption used by a strong VPN shields your data and information while it’s in transit, which makes it difficult for hackers to spy on your connection. (Think of your data and information traveling through a tunnel that no one else can use or see into.) In that way, a VPN makes all kinds of online activities more secure—like banking, shopping, and checking up on your finances, even using your apps.
By masking your whereabouts and your IP address, along with encryption that helps keep your activities private, a VPN reduces the personal information that others can collect and track. That includes internet service providers, social media companies, businesses, app developers, websites, and others who gather your data for marketing purposes or for resale to third parties.
A quick word about what WireGuard is in slightly more detail. It’s a VPN protocol, which is a series of technical rules that govern how your device can securely reach the VPN servers, validate your access to the requests you make online, and encrypt your browsing traffic so that only you can see what you are doing over the internet. WireGuard is one of several protocols that we support, such as the OpenVPN and IKEv2 protocols. While WireGuard improves upon OpenVPN and IKEv2 in many ways, both are still secure and safe ways in which a VPN can connect.
Now with the latest WireGuard standard in place, our VPN for Windows that comes with all our all-in-one plans offers faster speeds and improved stability compared to what previous standards offered. This gives you the security of a VPN with similar performance as if you were on a fully open connection—along with the added benefit of keeping your browsing and other activities private.
Taken together, the improved speed and stability give privacy-conscious people a further reason to use a VPN more often than before. Because a VPN can minimize the exposure of data as it transmits to and from your devices, companies and data brokers can potentially learn far less about you, your shopping, your travels, your habits, and any other information that they could possibly collect and otherwise profit from. The more often you use a VPN, the less they can potentially gather.
For more about VPNs and how ours can keep you more private and secure online, give us a visit here any time.
The post McAfee Secure VPN: Now with WireGuard for Faster Speeds and Enhanced Stability appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Optus, one of Australia’s largest telecommunications carriers, reported news of a data breach that may have compromised the information of current and former customers.
As of this writing, the company has not stated how many customers may have been affected, citing their ongoing investigation in conjunction with law enforcement and Australian government officials
According to Optus, the breach may have included the following:
“Information which may have been exposed includes customers’ names, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, and, for a subset of customers, addresses, ID document numbers such as driver’s license or passport numbers. Payment detail and account passwords have not been compromised.”
Optus is currently notifying customers who may have been affected by this breach with SMS and email messages. However, the company makes an important distinction here:
“We are not sending links in SMS or emails. If customers receive an email or SMS with a link claiming to be from Optus, they are advised that this is not a communication from Optus. Please do not click on any links.”
Often in the wake of such breaches, cybercriminals will send out phony communications that use the name of the company affected. These can include phishing attacks over email and SMS that solicit personal and account information or other tactics that attempt to capitalize on the announced breach.
Optus continues to keep its customers up to date on the latest developments on its website, which includes a comprehensive FAQ that details what happened, what steps are being taken, and what customers can do in the wake of this announcement.
Any time a data breach occurs, your exposed personal information may be used by those trying to commit identity fraud or theft. Different pieces of personal information can be more useful to them than others.
Some information is directly useful, such as a driver’s license or credit card information because they identify you right away. Others are indirectly helpful, like device IDs, browsing history, geolocation information, and internet protocol addresses. While they don’t identify you on their own, a cybercriminal could piece together your identity if they have enough indirect information about you.
In light of this, there are a few steps you can take to protect yourself in the aftermath of a data breach, which involve a combination of preventative steps and some monitoring on your part.
If you become the victim of fraud or theft after a data breach, a licensed recovery pro can help you restore your credit and identity. If you’ve ever dealt with fraud or theft before, or know someone who has, recovery can be a time-consuming and stressful process if you undertake it alone. With McAfee+ Advanced, you have around-the-clock support from a restoration expert with limited power of attorney who can take the steps that can help restore your credit and identity.
Working with an expert can lend you extra peace of mind, particularly in a time where there’s plenty of uncertainty. First, you’ll know that a professional is working on your case—a person who knows exactly where to start and what needs to happen for the best possible outcome. Second, you’ll get precious time back, time you’d otherwise have to spend if you took on the process yourself.
As mentioned above, with some personal information in hand, cybercriminals may seek out more. They may follow up a breach with rounds of phishing attacks that direct you to bogus sites designed to steal your personal information—either by tricking you into providing it or by stealing it without your knowledge. So, it’s always wise to keep a skeptical eye open for unsolicited messages or phone calls that ask you for information in some form or other, often in ways that urge or pressure you into acting.
An identity monitoring service can monitor your information from email addresses to IDs and phone numbers for signs of breaches so you can take action to secure your accounts before they’re used for identity theft. Personal information harvested from data breaches can end up on dark web marketplaces where it’s bought by other cyber criminals so they can launch their own attacks. McAfee monitors the dark web for your personal info and provides early alerts if your data is found, an average of 10 months ahead of similar services. We also provide guidance to help you act if your information is found.
While it does not appear that login information was affected, a password update is still a strong security move. Strong and unique passwords are best, which means never reusing your passwords across different sites and platforms. Using a password manager will help you keep on top of it all, while also storing your passwords securely. Moreover, changing your passwords regularly may make a stolen password worthless because it’s out of date.
While a strong and unique password is a good first line of defense, enabling two-factor authentication across your accounts will help your cause by providing an added layer of security. It’s increasingly common to see nowadays where banks and all manner of online services will only allow access to your accounts after you’ve provided a one-time passcode sent to your email or smartphone. If your accounts support two-factor authentication, enable it.
Mentioned earlier, information stolen in a data breach may indirectly identify you. Yet when pieced together with other information, it can then directly identify you. One way cybercriminals complete this identity picture puzzle is with information provided by data brokers that buy and sell personal information online. However, you can take some control over this. Our Personal Data Cleanup service scans high-risk data broker sites for your personal information and then helps you remove it—which denies cybercriminals the information they may need to commit identity theft.
When personal information gets released, there’s a chance that a hacker, scammer, or thief will put it to use. This may include committing fraud, where they draw funds from existing accounts, and theft, where they create new accounts in a victim’s name.
Even though it’s believed that no payment information was involved in this breach, customers should still take steps to monitor their statements and their overall credit report so that they can spot and address any unusual activity. Optus has announced that it will offer affected customers 12 months of credit and identity monitoring through Equifax, one of the major global credit agencies, at no cost.
Another step that customers can take is to place a credit freeze on their credit reports with the major credit agencies in Australia— Equifax, illion, and Experian. This will help prevent cybercriminals from opening new lines of credit or taking out loans in a victim’s name by “freezing” their credit report so that potential creditors cannot pull it for reference. Terms of freezing a credit report will vary, so check with each agency for details.
A complete suite of online protection software can offer layers of extra security for future protection. In addition to more private and secure time online with a VPN, identity monitoring, and password management, protection like McAfee+ Advanced includes web browser protection that can block malicious and suspicious links that could lead you down the road to malware or a phishing scam—which antivirus protection can’t do alone.
Per Optus, a subset of those affected may have had their driver’s license and/or passport ID number affected by the breach. Given that license and passport ID numbers are such unique pieces of personally identifiable information, anyone notified by Optus that theirs may have been affected should strongly consider changing them.
The process for replacing either document will vary depending on your state or territory. Given the scope of the attack, some states and territories have proposed making exceptions to the rules for attack victims. As of this writing, that picture continues to evolve, so look to your local government for guidance.
Not all data breaches make the news. Businesses and organizations, large and small, have all fallen victim to them, and with regularity. The measures you can take here are measures you can take even if you don’t believe you were caught up in the Optus breach. As you can see, several of them are preventative, which is important because word of data breaches tend to reach customers days, weeks, or even months after they’ve been discovered—leaving cybercriminals plenty of opportunity to commit all kinds of identity crime in the meantime.
In this case, the breach certainly made the news due to its apparent size and scale. And as Optus works with law enforcement and government officials, more details into the attack and who has been affected will arise.
However, you have every reason to act now rather than wait for additional news. Staying on top of our credit and identity has always been important, but given all the devices, apps, and accounts we keep these days leaves us more exposed than ever, making protecting ourselves a must.
The post The Optus Data Breach – Steps You Can Take to Protect Yourself appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Are you hoping to buy a house or apply for a car, personal, or business loan at some point? A great credit score helps to achieve all those things. You never know the twists and turns life might take you, so even if these financial milestones aren’t on your radar now, it’s nice to know that a great credit score will open many doors for you when you’re ready. The better your credit score, the more likely you are to get the loan you want at the best interest rate. People spend years (even decades!) working to improve their credit scores to unlock numerous opportunities. In the blink of an eye though, a credit fraudster can erase all that hard work and inflict long-term credit damage. It can cost huge sums to repair and take years to correct.
Many people feel lost on how to prevent these problems or what to do if they suspect identity theft. Luckily, new McAfee services called credit lock and security freeze, which includes credit freeze, are great tools to add to your credit protection toolbelt. They’ll help protect your most personal information from thieves, and both services will help give you the peace of mind you need to confidently go about your day.
Keep reading to learn more about McAfee’s credit lock and security freeze and find out how you can use them to help you from the negative consequences of identity theft.
Credit fraud is a type of identity theft where a criminal uses your information to borrow money, open a new credit or debit card, or uses your card to make purchases that they never intend to pay off. Then, when the loan defaults and the bills stack up, the victim is often left with their credit score in shambles.
According to the FTC, credit fraud is the most common type of identity theft in 2020 and 2021, receiving nearly 18,000 reports from people saying that someone used their information to gain illegal access to their credit card accounts.1
To make sure we’re all on the same page, here are quick definitions of McAfee’s credit lock and security freeze services.
A credit lock and a credit freeze both stop companies from accessing your credit information without your consent when an application for a loan or credit card is submitted. The main difference lies in their speed and credit bureau coverage. By toggling a switch in the McAfee Protection Center, turning on a credit lock is almost instantaneous. A credit freeze can take up to a day to enable or remove; however, it may offer stronger financial loss protection in most U.S. states if an unauthorized line of credit goes through while all three credit bureaus are frozen. Also, McAfee’s credit lock stops one credit bureau from accessing your account, while a credit freeze enables you to halt all three.
Just make sure that you unlock and unfreeze your credit before you do the following:
These are all situations where a bank or creditor will need to access your credit files. Luckily, with significant purchases and financing opportunities like these, you usually plan ahead, so you should have plenty to time to enable access to your credit. To unlock your credit, just click the credit lock toggle. To unlock a freeze, use the same provided links, sign into your account, and follow the instructions from there.
To further help you decide which service may be best for your needs, here are the situations where credit lock and credit freeze would be most helpful.
McAfee credit lock lets you simply toggle on and off one credit bureau’s ability to access your credit report. Usually, filing a lock on your credit with a bureau requires filling out forms and remembering a PIN to apply or remove a lock. Not with McAfee’s credit lock! You can turn a lock on and off at will through the McAfee Protection Center.
Convenience and blazing speed are ideal in situations where you’re worried that a criminal has your personal information and may use it to open accounts in your name that could then damage your well-earned great credit. Some people may choose to always have the credit lock enabled and only unlock it when they’re applying for a credit card or loan. That way, they can feel better about the safety of their credit score.
Credit freeze provides protection and peace of mind just like credit lock; however it enables you to freeze your account at all three major credit bureaus. When creditors check your credit score, they could do so with any credit bureau. If you only freeze one bureau’s access to your information, that still leaves the other two to make inquiries, so it’s important to set up a freeze for each one to cover all your bases.
As mentioned, a credit freeze is just one type of security freeze offered by McAfee. If you’re worried about an identity thief opening not just credit cards, but also utility and/or bank accounts in your name, McAfee’s utility freeze and bank freeze may be additional services for you. Security freeze helps stop unauthorized fraud attempts by giving you quick links and phone numbers. Having all these contact details in one place really speeds up the process and takes the guesswork out of if you’re contacting the correct offices.
Dealing with identity theft or credit fraud is a scary and stressful situation. That’s why McAfee is here with tools that help you protect you. Credit lock and credit freeze may help you feel calmer in a situation of suspected or real identity theft and gives you peace of mind to help prevent credit fraud from happening in the first place. Speed is of the utmost importance when foiling a criminal, so both solutions are easy to use with intuitive design so you’re not wasting time trying to figure out how they work. Plus, neither will affect your credit score. They just stop creditors from looking at your credit files, while you continue to boost your credit with your smart habits.
With both credit lock or credit freeze in your back pocket, you can feel more secure knowing you’re better protected from credit fraud.
1Fortunly, “20 Worrying Identity Theft Statistics for 2022”
The post Credit Lock and Credit Freeze: Which Service Is Best for You? Both! appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Online predators increasingly trick or coerce youth into sharing explicit videos and photos of themselves before threatening to post the content online
The post Protecting teens from sextortion: What parents should know appeared first on WeLiveSecurity
In the fall of 2021, cryptocurrency value skyrocketed. Ethereum and Bitcoin had their highest values ever, causing a huge stir in interest in online currencies from experts, hobbyists and newbies alike … and in cybercriminals seeking huge paydays. Since then, cryptocurrency value has cooled, as has the public’s opinion about whether it’s worth the risk. Huge cryptohacking events dominate the headlines, leaving us to wonder: Is cryptocurrency losing its credibility?
In this article, you’ll learn about recent unfortunate crypto hacks and a few cryptocurrency security tips to help you avoid a similar misfortune.
A crypto wallet is the software or the physical device that stores the public and private keys to your cryptocurrency. A public key is the string of letters and numbers that people swap with each other in crypto transactions. It’s ok to share a public key with someone you trust. Your private key, however, must remain private — think of it like the password that secures your online bank account. Just like your actual wallet, if it falls into the wrong hands, you can lose a lot of money.
A malware called Mars Stealer infiltrated several crypto wallet browser extensions, including the popular MetaMask. The malware stole private keys and then erased its tracks to mask that it had ever gained entry to the wallet.1
One way to completely avoid a breach to your software crypto wallet is to opt for a hardware wallet. A hardware wallet is a physical device that can only be opened with a PIN. But there is some risk involved with a hardware wallet: if you drop it down the drain, all your crypto is gone. If you forget your wallet PIN, there is no customer service chatbot that can help you remember it. You are solely responsible for keeping track of it. For those who are confident in their hardware’s hiding spot and their personal organizational skills, they can benefit from its added security.
For anyone less sure of their ability to keep track of a hardware wallet, a software wallet is a fine alternative, though always been on alert of software wallet hacks. Keep an eye on crypto news and be ready to secure your software at a moment’s notice. Measures include un-downloading browser extensions, changing passwords, or transferring your crypto assets to another software wallet.
In the case of the Mars Stealer malware that affected MetaMask, being careful about visiting secure sites and only clicking on trustworthy links could’ve helped prevent it. Mars Stealer made its way onto people’s devices after they clicked on an infected link or visited a risky website. Stick to websites you know you can trust and consider springing for well-known streaming services and paying for software instead of torrenting from free sources.
Cryptocurrency enthusiasts often spread their crypto investments across various currency types and blockchain environments. Software known as a bridge can link numerous accounts and types, making it easier to send currency.
The cross-chain bridge Horizon experienced was on its Harmony blockchain, where a hacker stole about $100 million in Ethereum and tokens. The hacker stole two private keys, with which they could then validate this huge transaction into their own wallet. To hopefully prevent this from happening in the future, Horizon now requires more than just two validators.2
According to one report, in 2022, 69% of all cryptocurrency losses have occurred in bridge attacks.3 If you exchange cryptocurrencies with other users and have various accounts, it’s almost inevitable that you’ll use bridge software. To keep your assets safe, make sure to extensively research any bridge before trusting it. Take a look at their security protocols and how they’ve responded to past breaches, if applicable.
In the case of Horizon, the stolen private keys were encrypted with a passphrase and with a key management service, which follows best practices. Make sure that you always defend your private keys and all your cryptocurrency-related accounts with multi-factor authentication. Even though it may not 100% protect your assets, it’ll foil a less persistent cybercriminal.
Phishing attacks on bridge companies in conjunction with software hacks are also common. In this scenario, there’s unfortunately not much you can control. What you can control is how quickly and completely you respond to the cybercrime event. Remove the bridge software from your devices, transfer all your assets to a hardware wallet, and await further instructions from the bridge company on how to proceed.
Decentralized finance, or DeFi, is now one of the riskiest aspects of cryptocurrency. DeFi is a system without governing bodies. Some crypto traders like the anonymity and autonomy of being able to make transactions without a bank or institution tracking their assets. The drawback is that the code used in smart contracts isn’t bulletproof and has been at the center of several costly cybercrimes. Smart contracts are agreed upon by crypto buyers and sellers, and they contain code that programs crypto to perform certain financial transactions.
Three multi-million-dollar heists – Wormhole, Beanstalk Farms and Ronin bridge – occurred in quick succession, and smart contracts were at the center of each.4 In the case of Wormhole, a cybercriminal minted 120,000 in one currency and then traded them for Ethereum without putting up the necessary collateral. In the end, the hacker cashed out with $320 million. Beanstalk Farms lost $182 million when a hacker discovered a loophole in the stablecoin’s flash loan smart contract. Axie Infinity’s Ronin bridge was hit for $625 million when a hacker took control over and signed five of the nine validator nodes through a smart contract hole.4
To be safe, conduct all crypto transactions on well-known and trustworthy software, applications, bridges, and wallets that are backed by a governing body. What you lose in anonymity you gain in security by way of regulated protocols. Hackers are targeting smart contracts because they do not have to depend on large-scale phishing schemes to get the information they need. Instead, they can infiltrate the code themselves and steal assets from the smartest and most careful crypto users. Because there’s almost no way you can predict the next smart contract hack, the best path forward is to always remain on your toes and be ready to react should one occur.
Don’t let these costly hacks be what stops you from exploring crypto! Crypto is great as a side hustle if you’re committed to security and are strategic in your investments. Make sure you follow the best practices outlined and arm all your devices (mobile included!) with top-notch security, such as antivirus software, a VPN, and a password manager, all of which are included in McAfee +.
Privacy, excellent security habits, and an eagle eye can help you enjoy the most out of cryptocurrency and sidestep its costly pitfalls. Now, go forth confidently and prosper in the crypto realm!
1Cointelegraph, “Hodlers, beware! New malware targets MetaMask and 40 other crypto wallets”
2Halborn, “Explained: The Harmony Horizon Bridge Hack”
3Chainalysis, “Vulnerabilities in Cross-chain Bridge Protocols Emerge as Top Security Risk”
4Protocol, “Crypto is crumbling, and DeFi hacks are getting worse”
5Cointelegraph, “Beanstalk Farms loses $182M in DeFi governance exploit”
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