Protect yourself from Bitcoin scammers with our top tips after celebs on Twitter were hacked

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TWITTER this week suffered its biggest – and most embarrassing – hack to date.

Bitcoin scammers tricked staff into giving them access to the social network’s backend.

Twitter suffered its biggest hack to date with Bitcoin scammers tricking staff into giving them access to its network

This attack is known as ‘social engineering’ and targeted Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, Barack Obama and other celebrities

This kind of attack is known as “social engineering” in the cybersecurity world. Targeting Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Elon Musk and others, they begged for millions for Bitcoin, with a phony promise to double their targets’ money.

Here, I answer some key questions.

Am I next?

The attack targeted the rich and famous like Elon Musk so a regular user shouldn’t be at risk

This attack targeted the rich and famous. There is no indication ordinary users are at risk. Yet the techniques are comparable with those many of us see regularly.

Emails claiming to be from PayPal, phony texts seemingly from your bank, fake credit card fraud calls and spoof social logins can trick us into giving information data or access to our accounts.

How do I stay safe?

The key to protecting your data is vigilance, do not click any link or messages that look fraudulent

The key is vigilance. If a message says there is an issue with your bank account, log in through the bank’s site. Don’t click a link on an email or SMS.

If someone calls claiming your card has been used fraudulently, hang up and ring the bank’s fraud line. A real bank employee won’t get angry or make you feel guilty. But a scammer might.

What else can I do?

To add an extra layer of security, two-factor authentication is the best way to protect yourself and could send a message to your phone to verify it is you

In April, HOAR reported that more than 500,000 Zoom login details were up for sale for pennies on the dark web.

Hacking incidents such as this happen all the time, with huge databases containing millions of people’s details lifted from servers.

Two-factor authentication (2FA) is the best way to protect yourself, adding an extra layer of security. It might be a numerical code sent to your phone or a notification on your mobile’s screen prompting you to confirm it is really you.

Head to the security area in your banking and social network logins to see what is available and enable 2FA today. A minor inconvenience is better than an emptied bank account.

Does my password matter any more?

Make sure to not reuse the same password, and make sure it is a strong and good one

2FA is today’s must-have security accessory. But it doesn’t mean you should carry on reusing the same basic password.

This leaves you open to another technique — the brute force attack, whereby a hacker tries a succession of password variants until, hey presto, they are in your Facebook account. Or worse.

If remembering your PIN feels hard enough, try a password manager app.
These generate extra-long passwords for all your accounts.

And you don’t have to remember them.

The app does the logging in and you only need to remember the one password to access the manager.

Just make sure it is a good password.

Popular password manager apps include LastPass, Dashlane and 1Password.

GOT a story? RING HOAR on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or EMAIL [email protected]

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