My Crypto Account Has Been Hacked?

Imagine that you have entered your crypto wallet and noticed that your account has been wiped clean and several transactions to unfamiliar addresses have been made. You’ve been hacked.

Due to the “virtual” nature of cryptocurrency ‘ownership’ is determined by whoever holds the codes for it. So, if it’s gone – it’s gone. You may track the address of the last wallet but it will give you nothing. You notify your exchange – but at the end of the day you have been scammed. And there is nothing you can do about it.

So How Could That Have happened?

There are many ways Crypto bad guys can access your account, but one of the most common fraud MO’s is to gain your username/password. And many mobile wallet providers still use passwords as an authentication methodology.

Crypto hackers pray on the vulnerability of people and often use phishing tactics to swindle good people of their username/password. Such bad guys can send you a fake email from behalf of your wallet service, comprising a bogus URL, which may differ from the genuine URL by one or several letters. Alternatively, crypto creeps can redirect the right URL to fake URL when you’re entering the online wallet.

Another attack MO that has led crypto wallet users to inadvertently forfeit their username/password is SIM SWAP. Criminals usually obtain access by exploiting mobile operators’ ability to port any mobile number onto a blank SIM card. This method allows hackers to gain-hold of customers’ username/password meaning free access to their crypto account.

Yes, username/password has become one of the weakest links in the Crypto wallet login process.

Paygilant provides comprehensive security throughout the crypto wallet users journey, anticipating and preventing fraud at multiple checkpoints. Paygilant’s six intelligence sets work as layers, using a combination of behavioral biometrics, device fingerprinting and transaction data to stop crypto fraud.

Device Attributes

Various attributes observed on the device can contribute to the detection of fraudulent behavior and to the derivation of a device ID. Device model, screen, memory, UUID, OS, IP, geolocation, app permissions, and more are observed. Geolocation is probably the best example for a device attribute used for detecting fraud - if a transaction is attempted from Moscow a short while after the preceding transaction was carried out in New York, then that is a strong indicator of fraud. Restricted app permissions is another indicator that the user might be hiding something. Another example is app permissions that are restricted by the user – that, in combination with other things, night suggest that the user might be hiding something.

Transaction Data

Paygilant employs propriety transaction behavioral maps. The Behavioral Maps represent the purchasing patterns/behavior of a specific customer and her nearest neighbors and are created using Paygilant's proprietary machine learning algorithms. The behavioral maps typically comprise a large amount of information but must be compact 9 enough since they are securely transmitted to the mobile device. To achieve this Paygilant utilizes its depth of field (DOF) approach from digital photography to compress the information so that complex calculations that do not require work intensive CPU and memory. A Behavioral Map shows a clear, high resolution picture of the different risk zones and is a key factor in determining the risk of a specific transaction and has the following key characteristics: - User specific: each map is unique, calculated and maintained on a per user basis, therefore representing a transaction risk level for each customer’s transaction. - Lightweight: Resolution variations enable maintaining only the necessary data, reducing the map's weight to a bare minimum. - Dynamic: As the purchase behavior changes, the map will be modified.

Device DNA

Bio Markers

Paygilant observes bio markers to passively identify the user behind the transaction. Common bio markers Paygilant observes include touch time, time between touches, size of touch inputs, finger velocity, scrolling pace and drag length, typing biometrics, and more. Paygilant’s robust bio markers are just one of the several intelligence sets that make up the broader solution and is designed to augment the fraud/no-fraud decision that precedes any step-up authentication request.

App Interactions

Paygilant looks at how the user interacts with the mobile application to determine if the interactions are consistent with a legitimate user. For example, if a user navigates directly to a high-ticket item and immediately proceeds to check-out, then that suggests something fraudulent might be happening. If a user inputs his name and address on the payment form in a manner that is not consistent with how normal users would do it (i.e. slower than expected because typing-in unfamiliar strings), then that provides another clue that something fraudulent might be happening.

User Data

Intelligent, privacy preserving analysis of user data on the mobile device provides valuable insights into fraudulent activities. User data analysis is especially helpful in hard-to-analyze scenarios like new account origination, where there is no established history for the user/account. Some examples for how device data can be used include comparing user accounts on the device with the payment cardholder identity, or the identity disclosed on a new account registration form – a mismatch provides a strong indicator for fraud. No media on the device, empty contacts list, and sparse call logs are also examples of fraud indicators that can be collected from user data on the device.

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