During the recent Blockchain boom, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were all over the world for a long time. It was all over the news, and people everywhere were discussing the topic and actively trading bitcoins.
However, when it comes to security aspects, users rarely think about the fact that cryptocurrencies can also be vulnerable to hacks. Hackers have been able to steal millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies in recent years.
Stealing private keys
Blockchain, Bitcoin’s public ledger, has a record of all addresses and then assigns a certain value to the keys that identify each entry.
Thus, when someone owns bitcoins, they actually have a private key to unlock a particular address on the blockchain.
These keys are stored both online and offline in various ways, and each has some level of security. However, they are all vulnerable, because if you want to know how to hack a bitcoin wallet, all you have to do is somehow gain access to that string of characters that forms that private key.
The most frequently attacked private keys are those responsible for storing online services. Sheep Marketplace is an excellent example of such service providers. It is mostly insiders who carry out such attacks, as they do not even need to know anything about the hack. All they need to do to get their hands on the bitcoins is to copy the entire database containing the private keys located at all the addresses stored in the database.
Keyloggers
These are malicious programs that record users’ keystrokes and send all this to the hacker. These programs are nearly undetectable.
They copy all your typed passwords and pin codes and can be quite an effective answer to the question of how to hack a bitcoin kernel after all. There are usually three options for installing keyloggers.
Among them:
- Sending the malware via email, this could be something like an EXE file or PDF.
- Creating a malicious site to install software.
- Distribution via USB, such as at some Blockchain / Bitcoin conference. The malware will simply be downloaded to the computer as soon as the USB is connected to the computer.
Fake wallets
There is another sophisticated way to hack bitcoin wallets. Fake wallets are simply applications that look like genuine wallets, but are designed to steal bitcoins.
These apps usually use official logos and all other information from existing bitcoin wallets to trick users. Surprisingly, fake wallets are common on both the Apple and Android App Stores.
Bitcoin miner
Those wishing to hack your bitcoin wallet may also use other bitcoin mining malware.
Each bitcoin mined will make it more difficult to create new bitcoins. Electricity will be needed to run and cool the “mining” computers. And because electricity is a major operating expense for miners, many of them take resources to mine bitcoins. This is usually done through the distribution of Bitcoin mining malware.
Today Bitcoin is easily mined by some of the largest botnets out there. Although they do not have any negative intentions, it is nevertheless not allowed to use a computer in this way, as they usually hack into online video equipment and the victim bears all the costs. As a result, the speed of hacked computers is significantly slower.
Bitcoin phishing
Bitcoin phishing is another widely known method of information theft. This involves the use of fake websites or emails designed to trick users into providing their private keys.
Passing themselves off as bitcoin recipients
An equally sophisticated method is to impersonate bitcoin recipients. Most recent Bitcoin hacks have occurred when companies have held fundraising events in the form of “initial coin offerings” asking investors to send them bitcoins.
Clever hackers know how to impersonate companies by setting up fake websites and convincing investors to send them millions of dollars worth of bitcoins to their personal bitcoin wallets, rather than the ones used by real companies. And once the bitcoins have been transferred to their wallets, no one will return them.
Trojan distribution
Another option available for those who want to find out how to hack your bitcoins is distributing Trojans, which are followed by transferring bitcoins to the hackers’ personal wallets. Such Trojans are designed to monitor computers, they are waiting for some information similar to a crypto-account number.
And, once such an account is detected, the hackers will replace the user’s account with that of the hacker. All the user has to do is press the “Submit” button and all the funds will be transferred to the hacker’s account. Again, there is no way to recover the funds in this case.
Well, these are all possible ways to hack Bitcoin. In fact, as time goes on, there are even more similar methods, as hackers will not stop trying to steal bitcoins from their owners.
