Cryptos have made many millionaires and billionaires. When there is money there is no escape from prying eyes. Exchanges like Mt.Gox and Coincheck have been hacked and Online wallets aren't safe either. Up until now, it is thought that Hardware Wallets are the safest bet and millions of them use Hardware Wallets like Ledger.

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Is Ledger Wallet Safe?

A month ago we saw an news on Ledger Hardware wallet where a man lost all of his savings since he tried to get a better deal by buying a second hand Ledger Wallet at half the price in ebay. His attempt to save $30 to $50 had costed him his life savings ($34,000) since the seller used his own recovery key rather than the usual random seed which is assigned by the manufacturer. This was the lesson learnt a month ago that we should always buy such things from trusted seller.

Now Ledger Wallet is on the news again but for a new vulnerability found by the manufacturer themselves which is impacting all of their devices. Ledger tweeted about the vulnerability in their official page over the weekend. This vulnerability is termed as man in the middle attack.

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MAN IN THE MIDDLE ATTACK

Man in the Middle attack is similar to the cryptoshuffler malware where the receiver address is modified by the malware. This is possible if the computer used to access the Ledger wallet is infected by the malware. If one does not check the address manually before sending the cryptos then the money could end up in the malware owner's account. To ensure safety, one can use the undocumented feature of Ledger as mentioned in the below image. By clicking on the monitor icon in the bottom left, one can verify the address manually before sending to ensure that it is safe to send.

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Conclusion

Cryptos are currently in a downtrend by more than 50% from its peak of $830 Billion to $340 Billion. But there is lot of money out there and none of the mechanism to store the cryptos are entirely safe. Always ensure that your laptop or PC has a good antivirus and always make sure to check address manually before sending them.

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