Google’s head of account security, Mark Risher said that he...

Google’s head of account security, Mark Risher said that he thinks cryptocurrency is like catnip for cybercriminals, and that due to the notorious price volatility of crypto, investors might become a ‘very hot target’ overnight.
The Google executive who oversees email fraud, abuse and identity issues, spoke to Hard Fork, where he explained how Google is interpreting the rise of cryptocurrency-centric SIM-swapping, which has been a menace for cryptocurrency investors for close to a year.
This new form of identity fraud attempts to trick telecom staff into rerouting a victim’s telephone number to a SIM card which is under the control of the attacker.
Once the hackers have control of a phone number, it would be them who would receive the special codes, allowing instant access to sensitive information.
The SIM swapping scams received a lot of attention ever since a victim sued cell phone provider AT&T for $224 million, alleging gross negligence that led to $24 million worth of cryptocurrency being stolen from his accounts.
Google is one of many tech giants to present a solution. It released its Titan Keys last year, which is a device that cryptographically ties particular devices to accounts, effectively keeping anyone without a registered device at bay.
Risher said that in the past Google would see attacks where they broke in someones account to send out Viagra ads to everyone in the address book.
'Today Viagra spammers are no longer a problem for Google, but cryptocurrency is like catnip for these attackers.’
'Things like the instantaneous nature of it, the very, very low transaction fees, the frictionless nature of money moving around, the pseudonymity. All are great for legitimate users, but they really work in the favor of people breaking into your account’, he explained.
Risher further pointed out that having a Titan Key physically present makes SMS a non-threat.
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