Quote from: alyssa85 on February 16, 2018, 01:31:35 PM

http://fortune.com/2018/02/14/bitcoin-cryptocurrency-blockchain-wallet-hack/

Quote

For years, hackers have robbed Bitcoin investors, emptying their cryptocurrency wallets without fear of being caught thanks to the relative anonymity of the blockchain. Now, Cisco (csco, +5.04%) has exposed the thieves behind a string of particularly flagrant attacks.

A Ukrainian hacker group dubbed Coinhoarder has stolen more than $50 million in cryptocurrency from users of Blockchain.info, one of the most popular providers of digital currency wallets, according to a report published Wednesday by Ciscos Talos cybersecurity team.

The report explains how thieves preyed upon their victims using a very simple yet treacherous technique: Buying Google ads on popular search keywords related to cryptocurrency to poison user search results and snatch the contents of crypto wallets. This meant people Googling terms like blockchain or bitcoin wallet, saw links to malicious websites masquerading as legitimate domains for Blockchain.info wallets.

For example, the poison ads included spoofed links with small types like blokchien.info/wallet and block-clain.info, which sent visitors to a landing page that mirrored actual websites of the company Blockchain, which runs both the domains Blockchain.info and blockchain.com. (The legitimate sites appeared lower in results than the poisoned links, according to Ciscos report.)

Fooled into believing they had come to the right place, victims then entered private information that allowed the hackers to gain access to their actual wallets and take their digital money. The attackers needed only to continue purchasing Google AdWords to ensure a steady stream of victims, the Talos team led by Jeremiah OConnor and Dave Maynor said in their report.

Blockchain, for its part, is working with Google on a daily basis to take down phishing ads, and secured the removal of almost 10,000 such malicious websites last year, along with another 3,000 it flagged in January alone, according to Blockchain CEO and co-founder Peter Smith.

The solution to this is not using Google to navigate. If you already have an account at blockchain.info or an exchange, BOOKMARK the url and go straight to that instead of googling the exchange name.

yeah i noticed the majority of google ads with certain keywords give out the fake phishing links. It's really annoying and dangerous especially for noobs who have no experience.

nguyenhoven

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