Having a crypto credit card is a wonderful thing. The capacity to pay for things directly in crypto where it is accepted as a currency is made so much easier, while the facility to turn crypto into the local fiat currency means that you are not restricted just to those vendors who will accept cryptocurrency payments.
If all that sounds wonderful, it’s because it is. However, one doesn’t need to be a cynic to realise there will always be a ‘but’, as we do not live in a utopian realm.
The most obvious way in which this is the case is the fact that the freedom offered by electronic payments that can cross borders and save time comes with one element of potential risk – that of criminals attempting to hack the system.
Theft As A Fact Of Life?
Of course, as long as people have used money there have always been those who want to steal it. From muggings on the street to bank robberies and embezzlement, financial crime has always been with us. What has changed is that now most payments are cashless, electronic means are the most prolific way criminals will seek to steal from others.
This is, of course, an issue whether your credit card and accounts hold crypto or fiat currency, but that doesn’t mean you just have to shrug your shoulders and accept it as a fact of life, like an occupational hazard of walking the streets of a rough city at night. Instead, you should rightly demand the best security.
Crypto Crime Laid Bare
If anyone needed a reminder of how the crooks are out to steal crypto as much as they are fiat currencies, a recent article in Infosecurity Magazine has provided it. The piece noted that monitoring by blockchain monitoring firm Certik had found crypto worth US $1 billion had been stolen in Web3 cyber-security incidents in the first half of 2024.
During this period there were 408 on-chain incidents, with the average loss being $2.9 million, although the median figure was $230,784.
The most common form of attack was phishing, with 150 incidents costing $497.7 million, followed by 105 code vulnerabilities. Private key compromises were only the fourth most common cause of loss, although these provided the second highest aggregate of costs at $408.9 million.
Other incidents involved exit scams (55 cases), price manipulation (25) and access control (20). The most commonly targeted currency was Ethereum, with $315 million accrued in 222 incidents. Bitcoin suffered just one loss, but it was a very large one at $304 million.
Given the number of security incidents and the range of ways in which the crooks will try to steal crypto, it is clear that any card and attached accounts that are fit for purpose will have robust defences to protect against scams and hacks.
How We Keep You Safe
The safety comes through the associated Volta Wallet and the apparatus in place to protect you.
Security measures for the account’s non-custodial wallets include some very advanced measures, like a 24-word mnemonic phrase and an 8-string numeric code. These are extremely secure measures that are impossible to guess, a far cry from the ‘password 1234’ type of security some people still try to get by with.
The way mnemonic phrases work is through having a simple string of words that can be easy (but essential) to remember. While the mnemonic dictionary doesn’t contain a vast number of words like the general English dictionary you may find on your bookshelf or in a library, it will have 2,048.
To guess a 12-word mnemonic phrase by trying to guess each of those words out of 2,048 possibilities and then arrange them in the right order is tricky, to say the least. The number of possible combinations is 2,048 to the power of 12 zeroes. Yet the Volta wallet doubles that with 24.
No Phishing In Your Pond
Of course, it is vital to be savvy about scams that attack in different ways, like phishing. This technique, which uses emails to induce people to volunteer compromising information, is widespread as a means of cybercrime whether it is used to steal crypto, fiat currency, or data.
For this reason, the National Cyber Security Centre has produced its own guide to help people identify and handle phishing attempts.
The theft of crypto by cyber crooks may be taken by some as quite alarming, but it is important to reflect on the point already made; when there is something valuable, someone will try to steal it.
Moreover, while thieves may have found ways of cracking safes or breaching weak online security, the establishment of extremely strong encrypted security on your account means it is like trying to pick a safe with 24 locks, making you a great deal more secure.