Why You Should Be Careful When Dealing With Cryptocurrency

This is just one example of how easy it is for hackers to obtain your information. Actually, many times all they need is your phone number and a novice call center employee to start the attacks, which only demonstrates that these companies can’t be trusted and that your virtual money is not safe with any of them. But if you still want to take the risk and choose to use cryptocurrency then this is why it is important to take some preventive measures, such as using a VPN.

The enigma hack

The Enigma hack was actually not a hack per se, but a lesson on how things shouldn’t be handled when dealing with virtual services, especially ones that deal with money. The attack happened a couple weeks before Enigma’s initial coin offering (ICO) and was scheduled for September 11 2017, where attackers set up a fake website by compromising its domain, Slack channel and some email lists. Using the emails of those who had shown interest in the pre-sale, hackers then asked people to send Ethereum ahead of time to a cryptowallet . Clients weren’t suspicious and sent in their payments, resulting in about $500,000 worth of Ethereum for the attackers.

For the compromised Ethereum users, this is beyond outrageous coming from the CEO of a company that places the highest emphasis on security. And if this weren’t enough, what’s even more scandalous is that only after regaining control of its network did Enigma step in to add security measures that should have been in place from the start, such as two-factor authentication and stronger passwords for employee email accounts.

Cryptocurrency: popular and easy targets for hackers

The more things change the more they stay the same, and despite all the evolution in technology over the years thieves will always go for gold. And the fact that cryptocurrency wallets are becoming more popular, it is natural that they become one of the most popular targets for hackers. In fact, there are many known cases where gaining access to and stealing people’s virtual money is relatively easy.

Cryptocurrency and other blockchain services are on the rise, being applied to everything from health services to decentralized DNS or even VPNs, which only proves that this will become the future sooner rather than later. But since all the security measures are still being developed, they are not to be trusted entirely. It’s always best to have some protection while managing your account, and one great option is to use a VPN. With these you’ll be hidden from any eavesdroppers since you’ll be routing your connection through encrypted tunnels to a server located in another country, not to mention the added benefits of having your true IP hidden. Likewise, it’s just as important to use strong, safe passwords and enable two-factor authentication on every service that allows it.