A Crypto investor Michael Terpin lost roughly 1,5oo bitcoins on January 7, 2018, after falling victim to a SIM swap attack, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The bitcoin stake was worth $24 million that day, roughly three weeks after the asset hit its record high price.
The incredibly precise hack involves thieves taking control of a phone number and using it to access email accounts, bank reserves, and even crypto wallets.
Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.
One crypto investor lost bitcoin worth as much as $24 million after falling victim to a new kind of hack known as SIM swapping, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Michael Terpin was hit by the attack on January 7, 2018, days after bitcoin reached its record high price. Thieves stole roughly 1,500 bitcoins by taking control of his phone number and using Google's "Forgot password?" feature to gain access to his email. With possession of the two personal accounts, the thieves hacked Terpin's crypto wallet, stole the digital assets and quickly sold them, according to WSJ.
Bitcoin traded between $16,969 and $15,790 per coin on January 7, 2018. The digital coin now trades at roughly $8,700.
Source:
Wall Street journal
In this crypto space we find ourselves, we are in charge of our personal safety in terms of online amounts and online crypto wallets. The moment you make a little mistake, your account or wallet will be drained off the crypto coins in it. It is quite sad that Michael Terpin lost about 1500 Bitcoins. But why will you keep such an amount of Bitcoins in one single wallet which is an online wallet? This will be a lesson he will never forget as long as he is alive. People need to protect and keep their wallets safe and secured.