- The US FBI has issued a nationwide warning to crypto users about possible attacks.
- They advised specifically to take care from specialized attacks for account access.
- The most difficult to prevent is the sim swap attack, which has also made news previously.
The FBI has issued a nationwide warning to users about possible attacks on exchanges and crypto holders. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation this week declared that active threats exist in the industry.
The FBI shared that certain groups are working to actively track weak points in popular crypto companies. For this, attackers have devised a set of specialized techniques. These include the practice of sim swapping, tech support fraud, and account stealing. The FBI also included recommendations for companies on how to maintain their holdings’ safety.
The agency used the TLP protocol for distributing the warning, which was designed specifically for information distribution. Along with this, the announcement came with the green designation, which signifies that peers and organizations can share this information.
To cryptocurrency holders, the FBI advised to always use two-factor authentication and be aware of the information they share online. Despite this, its still very difficult to prevent sim swap attacks.
Let’s look at what Sim Swapping Attacks are like:
Sim Swapping
Sim swap attacks are the hardest to counter even though they’re relatively easy to execute. All the attacker needs to do is get hold of the telephone number of the potential victim. They can then use of any one of two ways to complete the attack. One way involves identity theft, where attackers fool tech representatives by stating that the victim, in this case, has lost or damaged the sim card. This results in the attacker getting access to a new sim card.
The other way is more complex, in that it requires insider contacts in a telephone carrier. The attacker can gain access to a new sim with the victim’s number through this contact.
Both these ways result in attackers getting through multi-factor authentication easily. Notably, many high-profile sim swapping cases have made the news. These include the case of Michael Terpin, a blockchain investor, who sued AT&T for $200 million in damages for negligence after suffered a sim swap attack back in 2020. The same way, Europol stopped a sim swapping operation too last year, which stole more than $100 in cryptocurrencies
Source: https://coinquora.com/fbi-warns-crypto-users-against-possible-threats/
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