MyEtherWallet warns against phishing attempts after January hack

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MyEtherWallet has warned its users against a phishing attempts, following from a January hacking incident. The firm, based in Los Angeles, California took to Twitter to notify its users of the latest attack.

In the tweet, the firm asked its users to ignore an email that’s doing the rounds asking them for personal information. It made it clear that it never emails a user first, it only replies to requests sent to its support. It also clarified that it never requests users to give up their private keys.

In January, malicious hackers attacked the firm’s Google Domain Name System servers. This resulted in a massive man-in-the-middle attack, in which a hacker intercepts communication between a user and a server. Known as digital eavesdropping, the hacker can alter the communication and relay his own messages. The hackers never got access to the firm’s servers and thus didn’t get to compromise any information stored there.

Users who use hardware wallets, such as Ledger, and those who use MEWconnect, a free companion app for the wallet, were saved from the attack. Users can take some steps to further secure their digital assets, including downloading the keystore file to ensure the attackers can’t access their wallet.

The Never-Ending Scourge

The crypto industry has continued to be a target for cybercriminals despite advancements in cybersecurity. According to a report released by CipherTrace, criminals sole over $1.7 billion in 2018. A majority of the heists targeted crypto wallets and exchanges. Some exchanges have been negligent in their security measures, and hackers have been quick to exploit the loopholes. However, the report revealed that crypto heists reduced towards the end of the year with no major heist in Q4.

The report singled out South Korea and Japan as the two most affected nations. This is unsurprising as the two are some of the bigger crypto markets globally. The criminals also diversified into other tricks, including ICO scams and Ponzi schemes.