AI agent platform Virtuals Protocol suffered a hack to its Discord server on Jan. 8, and several fraudulent links purporting to be the Virtuals Protocol website were posted on Google Search.
According to the Virtuals team, one of the Discord group’s moderators was the victim of a private key breach that compromised the messaging server. The breach has since been resolved.
Cybersecurity firm Scam Sniffer also detected three malicious links advertised on the Google Search page impersonating the Virtuals Protocol website in a separate incident.
The security firm warned users not to interact with the links and encouraged the verification of official links before clicking. Threat actors continue to use increasingly sophisticated phishing scams to target crypto users and steal funds.
Scam Sniffer discovers three malicious phishing links posing as the Virtuals Protocol website. Source: Scam Sniffer
Related: Virtuals Protocol fixes bug, pledges bounty for researcher’s discovery
Phishing scams and private key compromises: top security threats in 2024
Blockchain security firm CertiK recently published a year-end report outlining security threats to crypto in 2024 and found that phishing scams were the most costly security threats last year.
Researchers at the security firm said phishing scams collectively cost crypto users over $1 billion in losses across 296 attack campaigns during the year.
The second biggest attack vector by monetary losses was private key compromises, which cost users a collective $855 million in 2024.
Losses from crypto hacks and scams increased 21% year-over-year in 2024, and the number of security incidents rose to 303, up from 282 reported in 2023.
According to Chainalysis, malicious actors focused on breaching centralized services and private keys in 2024.
Cybersecurity firm Cyvers told Cointelegraph that centralized products experienced a 1,000% year-over-year increase in attacks during 2024.
David Holtzman — a former military intelligence professional and chief strategy officer at the Naoris decentralized security protocol — also told Cointelegraph that the problem of centralized service hacks is set to worsen over time.
The executive said that artificial intelligence and quantum computers pose massive threats to centralized systems due to their single points of failure.
Magazine: 2 auditors miss $27M Penpie flaw, Pythia’s ‘claim rewards’ bug: Crypto-Sec
