Russians have been warned about an increase in hybrid attacks on owners of crypto assets

Owners of digital assets are increasingly facing not only cyber attacks, but also real physical threats. Russian experts note the rapid growth of hybrid attacks, when hacking a crypto wallet is complemented by direct pressure on its owner, including kidnapping and extortion. This was reported on November 19 by the Delovoy Peterburg newspaper.

Laundering funds: the damage from economic crimes has increased as much as possible since 2022

Why is the number of detected frauds increasing and which ones are the most common?

Independent crypto investor Mikhail Baydin notes that the number of criminal schemes around the crypto market has been increasing recently.

"P2p trading is well developed, and by sending money to someone, you may well accidentally finance unfriendly organizations or people who engage in fraudulent schemes. A lot of operations are carried out through drops (figureheads. — Ed.), any amount is divided into a large number of payments," Baidin emphasizes.

According to Alexander Gostev, chief technology expert at Kaspersky Lab, criminal groups are now collecting dossiers on owners of crypto assets, using KYC service data leaks and information from social networks for subsequent extortion or kidnapping.

"There are cases when data is stolen first, and then a dossier is kept on the victim, including the address, schedule, and amount of assets. And this is used for extortion or kidnapping. Most cases occur in silence — the victims are afraid of publicity," explains Gostev.

Artem Kartashov, CEO of Mining Depot, emphasizes that professional market participants rely on multi-level protection. The use of hardware wallets for long-term storage, their physical isolation, unique complex passwords and two-factor authentication on a separate device are considered effective measures. Large investors use asset sharing schemes, and self-locking wallets create a temporary buffer against coercion. Mining farm owners are strengthening the physical security of facilities by equipping them with cameras, thermal imagers, and armed guards.

Experts agree that the main losses are due to the basic mistakes of investors — careless storage of seed phrases and passwords. At the same time, stricter regulation is seen as a factor capable of reducing the level of chaos in the market over time. In 10 years, the cryptocurrency may turn into a regulated instrument with predictable dynamics, where only major players will remain.

On November 14, law enforcement officers stopped the activities of two Telegram channels that provided fake accounts in messengers to fraudsters to deceive citizens. It was noted that the operatives detained channel administrators between the ages of 16 and 18.

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