While the Cardano community counts the days to the protocol’s Vasil update, the project itself remains one of the most enticing targets for phishing attacks.
Cardano ranks 3rd among the most targeted cryptocurrency projects during the past three months, the recent data from Atlas (NYSE:ATCO) VPN survey reveals. According to information provided by a URL scanner tool, the crypto protocol recorded 191 phishing attacks since the end of March.
Phishing is a common type of cyber attack, impersonating authentic brands or businesses in order to steal sensitive data from the unsuspecting victims or to install malware on their devices.
Based on human vulnerability to manipulation, phishing remains one of the most common techniques in social engineering and cyber attacks. Last year alone phishing attacks accounted for around 90% of data breaches.
Crypto Projects Are Common Targets
Phishing is also one of the main causes of losses in the crypto world, as scammers target a wide range of cryptocurrency projects, including crypto exchanges and NFT marketplaces.
The survey revealed that crypto fintech Blockchain.com was the most targeted project among the scammers, with more than 662 attacks during the quarter.
Crypto investing app Luno recorded more than twice lower numbers or 277 attacks over the same time period. Despite this fact, it ranked the second most targeted crypto project.
In the meantime, trading platforms like Poloniex, Bittrex and Binance registered significantly lower numbers of phishing attacks. Each of them recorded between 72 and 59 phishing attempts. Solana’s leading NFT marketplace Magic Eden witnessed a similar range of attacks, or 67 phishing attempts over time.
Scammers also use a variety of tactics to perform attacks. Malicious crypto or NFT airdrops, legit-looking emails, websites, browser extensions, or social media accounts are used to fool victims into sharing their private keys or other credentials.
As part of social engineering scams, phishing remains a persistent problem in the crypto space. During the 11 months of the past year, the decentralized finance sector alone recorded more than $12 billion in losses due to the social engineering and phishing attacks. It is almost double compared to 2020.
Intensify Before Major Events
Last summer the founder of Cardano, Charles Hoskinson notified of the upcoming surge in Cardano-related scams and phishing attacks. “Anytime you see major events coming and, large-scale price appreciation and a lot of volatility, you always will see an enormous increase in scams,” Hoskinson then said.
“We will never ask you for your keywords, private keys and we will never ever ask you to install some monitoring software on your computer to be able to help you,” he added.
Scams and Misinformation about Cardano https://t.co/9Evc4VxEdw— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) August 23, 2021
Cardano is planning to implement a highly anticipated Vasil hard fork by the end of July. The protocol upgrade is said to significantly increase the performance and capabilities of the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain platform.