The creators of hardware wallet, Trezor have issued an urgent alert, saying that a  Phishing  Phishing Phishing is a form of cyber-attack in which fake websites, emails, and text messages are used to elicit personal data. The most common targets in this assault are passwords, private cryptocurrency keys, and credit card details.Phishers disguise themselves as reputable businesses and other types of entities. In certain instances, reputable government organizations or authorities are impersonated in order to collect this data.Because phishing relies on psychological manipulation rather than technological skill, it is considered to be a social engineering attack. The most common methods for phishing are email, telephone, or text message.How to Defend Against Phishing Attacks?Every phishing attempt has a few basic things in common, which individuals need to be aware of.You should always be on the lookout for offers that are overly lucrative or too good to be true. Click-bait titles or rewards and prizes without any context are red flags.Additionally, a sense of urgency should always be approached with caution. A favorite tactic amongst cybercriminals is to ask you to act fast because the super deals are only for a limited time.Finally, individuals should always be mindful of unusual senders and questionable attachments or hyperlinks. Simply hovering over a link shows you the actual URL where you will be directed upon clicking on it. If anything seems out of the ordinary, unexpected, or simply suspicious it is best to avoid clicking on any links. In the cryptocurrency world, phishing attacks come in forms such as fake wallets that unsuspectingly collect users’ private keys.Fake exchange login pages that collect users’ login data, and fake wallet seed generators that create and then collect the regenerative phrases used to make cryptocurrency wallets. Phishing is a form of cyber-attack in which fake websites, emails, and text messages are used to elicit personal data. The most common targets in this assault are passwords, private cryptocurrency keys, and credit card details.Phishers disguise themselves as reputable businesses and other types of entities. In certain instances, reputable government organizations or authorities are impersonated in order to collect this data.Because phishing relies on psychological manipulation rather than technological skill, it is considered to be a social engineering attack. The most common methods for phishing are email, telephone, or text message.How to Defend Against Phishing Attacks?Every phishing attempt has a few basic things in common, which individuals need to be aware of.You should always be on the lookout for offers that are overly lucrative or too good to be true. Click-bait titles or rewards and prizes without any context are red flags.Additionally, a sense of urgency should always be approached with caution. A favorite tactic amongst cybercriminals is to ask you to act fast because the super deals are only for a limited time.Finally, individuals should always be mindful of unusual senders and questionable attachments or hyperlinks. Simply hovering over a link shows you the actual URL where you will be directed upon clicking on it. If anything seems out of the ordinary, unexpected, or simply suspicious it is best to avoid clicking on any links. In the cryptocurrency world, phishing attacks come in forms such as fake wallets that unsuspectingly collect users’ private keys.Fake exchange login pages that collect users’ login data, and fake wallet seed generators that create and then collect the regenerative phrases used to make cryptocurrency wallets. Read this Term attack against some of its users has occurred over the last few days. Trezor team said that a number of its customers received fake communications regarding their hardware wallets.

The crypto wallet provider confirmed that its customer data has not been leaked. Instead, Trezor suggests that attackers appear to be using data obtained from the hack of a competitor’s e-commerce database. It added that the timing and scope of this phishing scheme suggest that the hackers who obtained the data are blindly sending texts to customers, and created phishing links for them to enter their seeds.

Trezor is apparently referring to cryptocurrency hardware wallet firm, Ledger, which was hacked in June when attackers managed to break into their database and steal data belonging to roughly a million customers. The information exposed to hackers included names, shipping addresses and phone numbers.

“The attackers may have bought competitors’ customer data from a dark market, where breached data is often sold, allowing them to send malicious links to any contacts listed in that data. The scammer is sending links to a fake version of the Trezor website, a replica of wallet.trezor.io, which has been modified to ask visitors for their recovery seed, completely exposing their coins. Once the user enters their seed on the fake webpage, the attacker simply replicates their wallet and sends the funds to an address they own,” the crypto firm further explains.

Trezor Plays Down the Risks

Moreover, Trezor makes clear that it will never ask for important information such as recovery seed, identification numbers or passwords over text messages. To help in securing users against possible breaches of data, Trezor added they routinely anonymize all customer data and remove all records from its e-commerce system after 90 days of placement orders.

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While hardware wallets are often used as a  Cold Storage  Cold Storage Cold storage is a computer system or mode of operation that is designed for the retention of inactive data, in this case private keys for cryptocurrencies. This helps put up resilient barriers against theft by hackers and malware, and is often a necessary security protocol especially dealing with large amounts of Bitcoin.In order to “own” a cryptocurrency, one must be in control of a cryptocurrency’s private keys. As such, private keys are long strings of random characters that can be used to send cryptocoins.Benefits of Cold StorageMany cryptocurrency experts recommend that you don’t keep your coins on an exchange at all rather, keeping them in a cold wallet of your own. Overall, cold storage helps control for a number of threats such as theft.This includes signing transactions with private keys in an offline environment. However, transactions initiated online are temporarily transferred to an offline wallet kept on a device such as a USB, CD, hard drive, paper, or offline computer. This itself creates risks that must be accounted for.These private keys can be stored in several different ways. By extension, when they are stored inside of a device that is connected to the internet, they are said to be in a hot wallet.When they are stored in a device (i.e. a hardware wallet) that is not connected to the internet, or on a piece of paper (a paper wallet), they are said to be in cold storage.Because cryptocurrencies that are kept in cold storage do not have an active connection with the internet, cold storage is considered to be a much safer method of keeping coins secure. After all, you can’t hack into a piece of paper.When searching for a cryptocurrency exchange, it is imperative to make sure that the exchanges you use keep their cryptocurrencies in cold storage. This vastly reduces the risk of losing the funds that you keep on an exchange to a hacker. Cold storage is a computer system or mode of operation that is designed for the retention of inactive data, in this case private keys for cryptocurrencies. This helps put up resilient barriers against theft by hackers and malware, and is often a necessary security protocol especially dealing with large amounts of Bitcoin.In order to “own” a cryptocurrency, one must be in control of a cryptocurrency’s private keys. As such, private keys are long strings of random characters that can be used to send cryptocoins.Benefits of Cold StorageMany cryptocurrency experts recommend that you don’t keep your coins on an exchange at all rather, keeping them in a cold wallet of your own. Overall, cold storage helps control for a number of threats such as theft.This includes signing transactions with private keys in an offline environment. However, transactions initiated online are temporarily transferred to an offline wallet kept on a device such as a USB, CD, hard drive, paper, or offline computer. This itself creates risks that must be accounted for.These private keys can be stored in several different ways. By extension, when they are stored inside of a device that is connected to the internet, they are said to be in a hot wallet.When they are stored in a device (i.e. a hardware wallet) that is not connected to the internet, or on a piece of paper (a paper wallet), they are said to be in cold storage.Because cryptocurrencies that are kept in cold storage do not have an active connection with the internet, cold storage is considered to be a much safer method of keeping coins secure. After all, you can’t hack into a piece of paper.When searching for a cryptocurrency exchange, it is imperative to make sure that the exchanges you use keep their cryptocurrencies in cold storage. This vastly reduces the risk of losing the funds that you keep on an exchange to a hacker. Read this Term method, they are not exempt from data breaches. Earlier this year, Kraken Security Labs disclosed a glaring flaw in the Trezor’s flagship hardware wallets, which allows attackers to steal the data stored within the devices.

Kraken cybersecurity researchers claim that the physical theft of encrypted seed can happen within 15 minutes of gaining access to the crypto wallet. While this flaw could only be exploited if there is physical access to the device, Kraken noted that it could only be fixed by overhauling the underlying design of Trezor’s products.

Trezor’s response was to point out that they are aware of this voltage glitching in the STM32 microchip, which allows an attacker with specialized hardware knowledge to obtain the encrypted recovery seed from the device.

More interestingly, Trezor attempted to underplay the significance of the issue, saying that the main threat and concern for crypto users were online and remote attacks, adding that any hardware is hackable.