According to global payment provider Visa, 2022 was a record-breaking year for cryptocurrency theft, with more than $3 billion stolen in on-chain theft. Cryptocurrency bridge services are a preferred target for threat actors.
Visa issued a second threat report on March 20. On page 24, the document contains data on all the breaches that have occurred in the digital payment system in the past year – from plastic card fraud schemes to malware. A separate section is dedicated to cryptocurrency and digital platforms.
It pays special attention to token bridges and their vulnerabilities. Most fraudsters exploit the bridge service’s smart contracts to create new transactions or allow the approval of unauthorized transactions. The total amount of funds, stolen through the token bridge, amounted to $2 billion from January to early October 2022.
The report also mentions crypto-focused phishing campaigns, where actors pose as crypto exchange companies in emails to harvest victims’ account login data. After the real exchange asks the threat actor for two-factor authentication (2FA), they will use a fake site to ask the victim to enter their 2FA information. It will then use real 2FA from the spoofed site to complete the login process.
Related:Visa’s crypto strategy aims at stablecoin settlement
In February, it was reported that, along with its competitor Mastercard, Visa will delay the launch of new partnerships with crypto companies due to bankruptcy in the industry. However, Cuy Sheffield, head of product at Visa, called the report inaccurate and assured that Visa will “continue to work with crypto companies to increase fiat and off ramps” and “build new products that can facilitate stablecoin payments.”
On February 20, Bitcoin’s market capitalization surpassed Visa’s market capitalization for the third time in history. By March 14, the gap between the two reached more than $20 billion in favor of BTC.