Clipboard Hijackers Targeting Bitcoin

According to the latest news sources, “clipboard hijackers” are eyeing more than 2.3 million Bitcoin digital wallet addresses. Clipboard hijackers are a group of malware that secretly gain control of a user’s memory for the purpose of stealing users’ crypto funds. This malware runs in the background so that users are unaware of its presence on their systems.

Long, Complicated Addresses

Users have long, complicated digital wallet addresses which they tend to copy on to the Windows clipboard.

The malware that has infected the users’ system and is running in the background detects the address that the user has copied onto the Windows clipboard. It then replaces the copied address with the attackers’ address. Since most users don’t re-check the address they have copied, they simply paste the (previously copied) address and conduct transactions from their wallets.

However, since the malware changed the address on the clipboard, the coins get transferred to the hijackers’ address (hence the term “clipboard hijackers”). Users don’t even notice the hack since it is almost impossible to memorize the lengthy and complicated wallet address. Additionally, most users don’t check twice when pasting the address to ensure that it is the right one.

Keeping Your Funds Safe

Bleeping Computer created a video explaining how this malware infects systems and what users need to look for to ensure that their systems are safe.

Other things that users can do to protect their funds is ensuring that their antivirus software is up to date. Operating systems should also be the latest ones as hackers can easily break into the older systems.

A critical point is that all cryptocurrency users should always double check their digital wallet addresses (or any other addresses) when conducting transactions with their cryptocurrencies. A quick way to do so is to check the first few characters as well as the last few characters of the wallet address for a match, however, the best way would be to take the time to ensure that the entire address is exactly right.

There are also crypto wallets such as TREZOR that force users to re-check addresses whenever one is generated to prevent address manipulation.

Growing Threats to Cryptos

It no longer matters whether you use an Android smartphone, a Windows PC or any other hardware. Hackers are finding ways to exploit vulnerabilities in all types of devices.

In fact, according to a recent McAfee report, cryptocurrency hijacking (cryptojacking) has gone up by a huge 629% in the first quarter of 2018 compared to the previous quarter.