Crypto security will always be a game of ‘cat and mouse’ — Wallet exec


Cryptocurrency pockets suppliers are getting extra subtle, however so are dangerous actors — which suggests the battle between safety and threats is at a impasse, says a {hardware} pockets agency government.

“It’s going to at all times be a cat and mouse sport,” Ledger chief expertise officer Ian Rogers instructed Cointelegraph when describing the fixed race between crypto pockets corporations including new safety features and hackers discovering extra superior methods to entry victims’ wallets.

Rogers mentioned, sadly, essentially the most simple scams work greatest as a result of scammers depend on individuals making easy errors.

“Individuals give their 24-word phrases to individuals day by day, so so long as that occurs, then they will go for the low-cost tax,” he mentioned, including:

“Anybody who asks to your 24 phrases is a legal.”

Rogers highlighted a typical crypto scam the place victims get tricked by replies underneath “any publish on Twitter about crypto,” with messages like “DM me, and I’ll assist you to.”

“You recognize that scammers are at all times asking you to your 24 phrases,” Rogers mentioned. CertiK chief enterprise officer Jason Jiang lately instructed Cointelegraph that being conscious of phishing assaults on social media can drastically enhance a user’s crypto security.

Generally, scammers hijack the accounts of well-known trade figures to publish malicious hyperlinks, making it even more durable for customers to identify the rip-off.

In September 2023, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s account was compromised, resulting in a pretend NFT giveaway that tricked followers into clicking — solely to empty over $691,000 from their wallets.

Cryptocurrencies, Security, Ledger, Hacks

Supply: CertiK

Rogers emphasised that this can at all times be the case, simply as bad actors aren’t restricted to crypto — scams like pretend emails from the “Nigerian president” have been round for years.

“The price of the assault is at all times commensurate with the dimensions of the prize, proper?” Rogers mentioned. In 2024, crypto hacks jumped 15% from 2023, with over $3 billion stolen.

Associated: Hacker steals $8.4M from RWA restaking protocol Zoth

In the meantime, pig butchering scams have emerged as one of the pervasive threats to crypto traders, with losses on the Ethereum community costing the trade $5.5 billion throughout 200,000 recognized circumstances in 2024.

Pig butchering is a sort of phishing scheme that includes extended and complicated manipulation ways to trick traders into willingly sending their belongings to fraudulent crypto addresses.