On January 8th, the AI agent platform Virtuals Protocol experienced an unauthorized intrusion into its Discord server. Deceptive links, falsely claiming to be the Virtuals Protocol website, were distributed through Google Search.
As reported by the Virtuals team, a member of one of their Discord groups had their private key stolen, which in turn affected the messaging server. This issue has now been addressed and resolved.
In another occurrence, cybersecurity company Scam Sniffer identified three harmful links disguised as links to the Virtuals Protocol site, which were displayed on a Google Search results page.
The security company advised users to avoid clicking on suspicious links and always verify official ones beforehand, as cybercriminals are constantly developing advanced phishing tactics to swipe cryptocurrency assets from users.
Phishing scams and private key compromises: top security threats in 2024
Last year, it was discovered by blockchain security company CertiK in their annual report that phishing schemes caused the highest financial losses among all security risks for cryptocurrencies in the year 2024.
Last year, researchers from a security company reported that phishing attacks on cryptocurrency users resulted in collective losses exceeding $1 billion, distributed across 296 separate instances of such attacks.
In 2024, private key breaches were the second largest source of financial loss, amounting to a total of $855 million for affected users.
2024 saw a 21% rise in financial losses due to crypto hacks and scams compared to the previous year, with a total of 303 security incidents reported – an increase from the 282 incidents recorded in 2023.
Based on Chainalysis’ findings, in the year 2024, malicious users primarily targeted intrusions into centralized platforms and theft of private keys.
2024 saw a staggering 10 times the number of cyberattacks on centralized products, as reported by Cyvers to CryptoMoon.
As a researcher, I, David Holtzman – previously a military intelligence expert and current Chief Strategy Officer at Naoris’s decentralized security protocol – expressed my concerns to CryptoMoon, stating that the issue of hacking on centralized services is expected to escalate in severity over time.
The executive expressed concern that centralized systems could face significant risks from advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum computers, given their vulnerabilities at critical, singular points.
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2025-01-08 20:27