A recent report from Russian cybersecurity and antivirus-focused Kaspersky detected more than 5 million crypto phishing attacks in 2022, compared to nearly 3.5 million in 2021. This represents a 40% year-on-year growth, and that is quite concerning.

A phishing attack is essentially a cryptocurrency scam which involves tricking victims into sharing their private keys or other personal information, which’ll then be illicitly exploited to steal crypto funds. Hackers initiate such scams by luring investors and traders to fake websites and communication channels which may seem quite legitimate for the average user.

According to Kaspersky, a total of 5,040,520 crypto phishing attacks were detected, compared to 3,596,437 attacks in 2021. Kaspersky did not predict if the trend would continue to increase in 2023, but as highlighted that “crypto still remains a symbol of getting rich quick with minimal effort”.

If crypto continues to be symbolized and popularized in this manner, hand-in-hand with the growing capabilities of hackers in finding innovative ways to scam unwary crypto traders, it is quite plausible that the number of phishing attacks propels in 2023.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-phishing-attacks-up-by-40-in-one-year-kaspersky

https://www.kaspersky.com/about/press-releases/2023_cryptocurrency-phishing-grows-by-40-percent-in-one-year

https://www.investing.com/news/cryptocurrency-news/crypto-phishing-attacks-up-by-40-in-one-year-kaspersky-3056290

https://bitcoinist.com/kaspersky-report-shows-40-increase-in-crypto-phishing-attacks-in-just-one-year/