Hackers Implement New Techniques To Steal Cryptocurrency Funds

As cryptocurrencies expanded all over the world hackers and stealers have been trying to steal users’ funds in different platforms and implementing a wide range of innovative methods. Now, Doctored photos can be used by hackers to gain access to people’s virtual currency accounts.

The information was released by the cybersecurity firm Hold Security. According to it, fake photos are being sold on the dark web for hackers to be able to reset users’ two-factor authentication. They can do it by getting around the passcode that protects individuals.

If hackers claim that a user lost its phone, it is possible for them to submit a photo of an individual holding various forms of ID. With this picture, users can link the account to their phone number and use the login info to receive the passcode they need to extract the virtual currencies.

Alex Holden, Chief Information Security Officer at Hold Security, mentioned that hackers work side by side with graphic designers on the dark web to replace the information in the photo they send. It is very simple for hem to change the information of a passport or driver’s license. If there is an individual holding a passport or official document, the exchange would clearly believe that this person in the picture is the legitimate user.

Holden explained that there have been doctored images for exchanges such as Xcoin and also Bitrex. Some of the pictures are made by professionals but others have very poor quality. Hackers even replace the metadata on the photo to make it appear that it has not been altered. He said that the prices could fluctuate between $50 and $100 per picture.

Holden commented about this:

“We don’t see a lot of alteration of [pictures of] someone holding a piece of paper but the individuals holding their IDs, the number of these we see is quite large. There are probably tens of thousands of cases of this over the past year or so.”

Users cannot do anything to prevent these things to happen. The information that hackers need is already available for them to use it.

There have been several billions of dollars stolen from exchanges during the last years. Solely in 2018, there was an estimated $950 million worth of virtual currencies from exchanges and crypto platforms. Clearly, the best advice is to store digital assets on cold storage wallets rather than on online platforms such as exchanges.

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