Visa Reports Record-Breaking Cryptocurrency Thefts in 2022

Visa, one of many world’s main fee suppliers, has launched its biannual menace report, revealing that 2022 noticed a record-breaking variety of cryptocurrency thefts, with over $3 billion stolen in on-chain exploits. The report covers all sorts of digital fee system violations worldwide, together with plastic card fraud schemes and malware, however has a separate part devoted to cryptocurrency and digital platforms.

The report identifies token bridges as a standard goal for menace actors. These bridges allow the change of cryptocurrencies between totally different blockchain networks, however fraudsters typically exploit good contracts inside the bridge service to both create new transactions or enable for unauthorized transactions to be accredited. Between January and early October 2022, a complete of $2 billion was stolen through token bridges.

Visa’s report additionally highlights a cryptocurrency-focused phishing marketing campaign that focused crypto exchanges. The attackers impersonated a crypto change in emails to gather the sufferer’s account login information. When the precise change prompted the menace actor for two-factor authentication (2FA), the attacker used the spoofed web site to acquire the sufferer’s 2FA data, permitting them to finish the login course of utilizing the real 2FA from the spoofed web site.

In February, it was reported that Visa and Mastercard would delay the launch of latest partnerships with crypto companies because of high-profile bankruptcies within the business. Nonetheless, Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s head of product, refuted the claims, stating that Visa would proceed to associate with crypto firms to reinforce fiat on and off-ramps and create new merchandise to facilitate stablecoin funds.

Regardless of the delay, the cryptocurrency market has continued to develop, with Bitcoin’s market capitalization surpassing Visa’s for the third time in historical past on February 20. By March 14, the hole between the 2 had grown to over $20 billion in favor of Bitcoin.

Cryptocurrency thefts have been a recurring downside within the business, with exchanges and customers typically focused by hackers. In 2019, the notorious hack of Japan-based change Coincheck resulted within the lack of over $500 million value of cryptocurrency. Equally, the 2021 Colonial Pipeline ransomware assault concerned a requirement for fee in Bitcoin.

Visa’s report highlights the significance of securing token bridges and exchanges, in addition to the necessity for continued efforts to reinforce safety measures within the cryptocurrency business.