Total losses from hacks and cybersecurity exploits in the crypto industry totaled approximately $76 million in December, a 60% decrease from November’s $194.2 million in losses, according to blockchain security firm PeckShield.
There were 26 major crypto exploits in December, PeckShield said in an jobwith one user losing $50 million in a fight against poisoning scamsa type of attack in which the malicious actor sends small amounts of cryptocurrency from a wallet that closely resembles a legitimate wallet address, betting that the intended victim will not notice the difference.
Typically, the first and last four characters of addresses match, with the attacker hoping that the victim will accidentally send funds to the fraudulent address by selecting the poisoned address from their transaction history without carefully examining the entire chain.
Another user lost around $27.3 million following a private key leak in a multi-signature wallet hack, PeckShield said.
While the decline in the total amount of stolen funds is a positive development, users should remain vigilant and take security measures to protect themselves from common scams and cybersecurity pitfalls.
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How to Reduce Exposure to Common Crypto Exploits
Peck Shield cited the Christmas Trust Wallet hackwhich emptied the wallet of $7 million in user funds, and the $3.9M Flow Protocol Hack as some of December’s most notable attacks.
The Trust Wallet exploit affected the wallet browser extension. Browser-based wallets are permanently connected to the Internet, a design feature that can increase susceptibility to specific attacks. cybersecurity threats.
Use a hardware walletAn offline storage device similar to a USB drive for storing cryptographic private keys is widely considered one of the most secure storage methods for digital assets.
Users can also completely neutralize the threat of address scams by checking each character of the destination wallet address multiple times, instead of taking a quick glance at the address or selecting it from a transaction history list.
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