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Crypto enthusiasts and developers have shared some tips for users to protect themselves from scammers.
To protect funds and choose a secure exchange to set up DeFi protocol security, security sages have shared their top suggestions on how a user can protect crypto from being trapped in hacks.
The users of crypto and projects must keep their eyes on the bull market, and look for untrustworthy crypto exchanges, unsecured decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and ever-evolving and growing phishing scams.
Hackers have launched 30 attacks, contributing to over $182.5 Million in stolen funds in January 2024, which is approximately 750% up from January 2023. Moreover, it is 80% up from December 2023. This data confirms an exponential growth in scams around the crypto industry.
In February 2024, the amount of stolen funds doubled from the previous month to $380 Million. Out of this, $380 Million, $290 Million were stolen from PlayDapp. $26 Million from FixedFloat and $9.7 Million from Axie Infinity. This article will discuss four such tips to enhance security over crypto investments.
Education and Awareness
Eric Jardine, Cybercrime research lead of Chainalysis, has stated,
“Education is the first line of defense in keeping crypto safe.” as “For users, awareness is always important.”
He added that cryptographic protocols mostly have wide transparency because of their open-source development. It is good for users who want to audit the code but it also opens opportunities for wrongdoers who can analyze the vulnerabilities and plan exploitations in advance.
To avoid these vulnerabilities, it is advisable to do thorough research on the platforms and DeFi protocols before getting involved in them. It is important to understand their features and strategies and be updated with the latest developments.
Multiple Checks
It is known from the anti-scam platform that social media has the maximum number of scam links, as malicious websites attach their links to the advertisements on this platform. So, it is advised that before engaging in an activity, a user must check the authenticity of the website multiple times.
A similar activity was observed on February 25, as an attacker attached a look-a-like website for Microstrategy and stole around $440,000 in the name of Ethereum staking and airdrops.
A user shared this screenshot and reported the problem to the concerned security department.
Preferring CEX
The new crypto users often buy their digital assets on a centralized exchange (CEX), a single entity owned and operated. In contrast, there have been multiple scams around CEX.
So the criteria for choosing a secure CEX is to ensure its license or at least the CEX should be the one who publishes its proof of reserves periodically.
Moreover, the chosen exchange should not have any withdrawal issues or high withdrawal fees, in addition to timely support and clear responses.
Securing Private keys
The DeFi protocols require security efforts to cover vulnerabilities on and off the blockchain. Losing private keys led to the most scams in 2023. So firms do offer products that can alert and react to cyberattacks. It helps secure third-party integrations and communicate with users who are at risk.
The security protocols should be designed in such a way that they can cover more than just on-chain vulnerabilities and smart contracts.
Steefan George is a crypto and blockchain enthusiast, with a remarkable grasp on market and technology. Having a graduate degree in computer science and an MBA in BFSI, he is an excellent technology writer at The Coin Republic. He is passionate about getting a billion of the human population onto Web3. His principle is to write like “explaining to a 6-year old”, so that a layman can learn the potential of, and get benefitted from this revolutionary technology.
