Browser Extensions Used by Scammers to Steal Bitcoin
According to Casa CEO Jeremy Welch, browser extensions ranging from text editing apps to wallpapers have been reported to be used by criminals to rip off unsuspecting individuals of their Bitcoin.
While Welch was speaking to an audience at the Baltic Honeybadger conference in Riga this weekend, he made emphasis on the hazards involved in the daily use of the internet for various activities including online transactions which could lead to the risk of exposing data to unscrupulous people on the internet.
He also made reference to the increase in the level of physical attacks on Bitcoin owners who are also at risk as retrieving funds could be impossible if successful.
Welch listed 13 ways criminals can hijack Bitcoin from people.
He examined quite a number of scenarios that could possibly play out from rogue employees to SIM card hijacking to compromised KYC data, demonstrating the level of importance in paying attention to cybersecurity.
According to Welch:
“Browser extensions pose major risks and it’s especially for web apps. We think the risks around browser extensions are being under-discussed at this point and we want to raise that discussion a little bit. How major are these risks?”
In his presentation, he showed how easily it could be for data to be released unknowingly through browser extensions into the hands of unscrupulous people and lead to loss of funds. The release of data could be as little as a Bitcoin wallet address searched on the blockchain.info website among others.
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