The Never-Ending Chase: Wallet Providers and Hackers
As the world of cryptocurrency matures, wallet providers continue to drive security innovations — but hackers are not quitting. Ledger Chief Experience Officer Ian Rogers calls the fight against cybersecurity a never-ending “cat and mouse game.”
Rogers said that as technology advances, the most successful scams still take advantage of human error.
Simple Scams, Huge Losses
“Others share their 24-word sentences with others on a daily basis,” Rogers added, explaining that criminals exploit the average error as it requires little effort and richly rewards them.
He pointed out the cyclical pattern: spammers responding to crypto-oriented posts, posing as help and luring users into sharing their seed phrases.
Social Media Still Hotbed of Threats
CertiK’s Jason Jiang echoed Rogers’ sentiments, saying that security can be greatly improved by being cautious on social media.
High-profile hacks continue to show just how plausible these cons are. In 2023, Vitalik Buterin’s X (formerly Twitter) account was hacked, utilized to hype a fake NFT drop that stole $691,000 from unsuspecting wallets.
Hackers Follow the Money
- Rogers stated that proportionate attacks on likely gains: “The cost of the attack is always commensurate with the size of the prize.”
Crypto hacks in 2024 increased 15%, with over $3 billion taken. Pig butchering — a deceptive, long-running phishing scam — by itself drained $5.5 billion on Ethereum in 200,000 reported cases.
Crypto Safety Starts With the User
Lastly, Rogers and Jiang point out that technological innovations are not enough to keep pace with scams if consumers remain gullible. Awareness, education, and caution are the best safeguards in a game whose rules change every day.
