Phishing attacks on digital asset users nearly tripled in Q2 2022.
CertiK analysts published their quarterly report HACK3D. According to their data, there were 290 phishing attacks in Q2 of this year, compared to 106 attacks in Q1. So, the overall increase in the number of attacks exceeded 170%.
Analysts conclude that social platforms without account verification features are a “major Web3 pain point.” First of all, it concerns Discord and Telegram. However, hackers are actively using Twitter, where account verification is present.
Attackers disguise their accounts as those of famous projects and opinion leaders, offering gifts or participation in promotions and spreading phishing links in this way. Analysts emphasize that hackers mainly count on social engineering, i.e., human errors and ignorance. Therefore, the main counteraction to the increasing incidence of hacking is raising the level of user awareness against hackers’ actions.
A good example of hackers’ activity is a recent hack of NFT projects Bored Ape Yacht Club and OtherSide. A phishing attack resulted in the theft of assets, the value of which at the time was estimated at $260,000. The hack was carried out through the account of Boris Vagner, Community and Social Media Manager at Yuga Labs. Overall, according to the Atlas VPN team, the number of crypto hacks increased by 21% in Q2 2022, and the total amount of damage was estimated to be around $1.98 billion.
