I have heard and read about this way too many times.
Earlier this week, a man out in Austria logged into a public Wi-Fi and checked his bitcoin accounts only to have $117,000 worth of bitcoin immediately swiped from his accounts.
The entirety of the story can be read here:
https://themerkle.com/public-wireless-network-costs-austrian-man-us117k-worth-of-bitcoin/
It is unclear exactly where the money was stolen from as the investigation is ongoing, but it is pretty clear the basics of what happened.
Anytime you login to a public Wi-Fi connection, it is possible that your information can be stolen. Never access cryptocurrency exchanges or online wallets from a public Wi-Fi connection.
Hackers can set up seemingly identical connections as well as use things called "sniffers" to gain access to your information.
Some specifics:
In this particular situation, the individual's bitcoin accounts were compromised immediately when he logged in.
From that point his bitcoin was transferred out of his accounts and sent to an anonymous account.
It will be interesting to see how the criminals plan on getting that bitcoin into fiat currency as that anonymous account is being watched by regulators.
Perhaps the plan is to exchange it for a different crypto, like Monero, that is harder to track? Or perhaps the plan is just to keep it in bitcoin and perform some transaction in that, since it is being more widely accepted around the world?
The big takeaway from all of this is just don't access your wallets or exchanges while using a public Wi-Fi.
It's just not worth the risk.
I know that when I was staying in Las Vegas in some of the different hotels, I didn't even access steemit.com out of fear that someone could potentially steal my login information.
The drawback of being your own bank, like you are with crypto, is that you have to have security like a bank. There is no one out there ensuring your funds except for you.
If they are lost, you are out of luck.
Don't let that be you.
Stay informed my friends.
Sources:
https://themerkle.com/public-wireless-network-costs-austrian-man-us117k-worth-of-bitcoin/
Image Sources:
https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/us-state-prosecutor-paid-off-ransomware-hackers-with-bitcoin/
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/byob-learn-how-to-use-bitcoin-to-be-your-own-bank#/
