According to blockchain security company PeckShield, losses from hacks and cybersecurity exploits in the crypto industry totaled nearly $76 million in December, down 60% from November’s loss of $194.2 million.
There were 26 major crypto exploits in December, PeckShield said in a statement PostOne user lost $50 million in an address poisoning scam, a type of attack where a threat 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 discrepancy.
Typically, as the first and last four characters of the address match, the attacker hopes that the victim will accidentally send funds to the fraudulent address by selecting the poisoned address from their transaction history without closely examining the entire string.
PeckShield said another user lost about $27.3 million in a private key leak in a multi-signature wallet hack.
Although the decline in the total amount of money stolen is a positive development, users should remain vigilant by adopting security measures to protect themselves from common scams and cybersecurity threats.
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How to reduce the risk of common crypto exploits
PeckShield cited the Christmas Trust wallet hack, which drained $7 million of user funds from the wallet, and the $3.9 million Flow Protocol hack as some of the most notable attacks of December.
The TrustWallet exploit affected the wallet’s browser extension. Browser-based wallets are constantly connected to the Internet, a design feature that may increase vulnerability to specific cybersecurity threats.
Using a hardware wallet, an offline storage device similar to a USB drive, to store crypto private keys is widely considered one of the most secure storage methods for digital assets.
Users can completely neutralize the risk of address scams by checking each character of the destination wallet’s address multiple times, instead of taking a quick glance at the address or selecting it from the transaction history list.
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