Cryptocurrency exchanges are often considered gateways for novice users all over the world. These platforms allow regular consumers to buy and sell bitcoin and top altcoins using convenient payment methods. At the same time, these exchanges also pose a big risk when it comes to attacks by cybercriminals. A new man-in-the-browser attack may prove to be a big problem for top exchanges moving forward.
The Man-in-the-Browser Attack
With so many different attack vectors for criminals to exploit these days, it’s become evident that cryptocurrency users need to be extremely careful about how they behave online. A new type of attack vector has emerged during the past few months, and it is known as a man-in-the-browser attack. Unlike what the name suggests, no one physically enters your browser, but they do so in a digital manner.
The more worrisome method of attack right now comes in the form of web injects. By employing this method, criminals can modify web pages and transactions by leveraging known – and unknown – vulnerabilities in most common browsers. This is of extreme concern to cryptocurrency users all over the world, as most people rely on browser-based interactions when it comes to dealing with exchanges, wallet services, and the like.
It seems two cryptocurrency services are already being targeted by these man-in-the-browser attacks. More specifically, both Coinbase and Blockchain.info are of great interest to criminals as of right now. No one will be surprised by this development, as both Coinbase and Blockchain are extremely popular. Being the world’s biggest exchange and one of the larger wallet providers certainly carries certain risks.
It seems there are other reasons to worry about man-in-the-browser attacks. Rather than just humans performing these attacks, it seems there is a growing number of online bots performing web injects these days. Assuming this trend keeps up, it is only a matter of time until cryptocurrency users feel the brunt of these types of attacks. It is evident that cryptocurrency users remain a frequent target of criminals these days.
There are a lot of things to worry about when it comes to using cryptocurrency, and these attacks show that we need to find better ways to buy Bitcoin and manage currencies than relying on centralized solutions. All of this seems to indicate there will be more attacks against cryptocurrency users and platforms in the near future. A man-in-the-browser attack is something users need to be very wary of, even though it is not exactly something one can easily detect these days.
