Report: One-Third of US Crypto Holders Have Experienced Theft
- The report surveyed about 2,000 American adults in October 2022.
- Some respondents said they had experienced crypto theft at some point.
- Losses faced by respondents were largely due to their poor security habits.
Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky has published its “Crypto Threats 2023” report, which highlights some of the risks of using cryptocurrencies. The report focused on crypto users in the United States and revealed some shockingly negligent user security practices.
About 2,000 American adults were surveyed late last year, and the result showed that 24% of those polled owned cryptocurrencies and were familiar with digital assets. Crypto owners varied from 36% of those aged 25 to 44 to 10% of those 55 and older.
One-third of the polled crypto owners claimed they had experienced theft at some point, and a similar percentage of respondents said they had fallen prey to con artists. Respondents listed loss of access to their accounts, hacks, and theft of both identity and payment details as the most common experiences.
According to Marc Rivero, a senior security researcher at Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team,
From fake apps to cryptojacking, there is a long list of threats lurking online to target cryptocurrencies. Without any regulation or established common knowledge, people need to take care to protect themselves. This survey data shows a lot of people are getting their crypto stolen and even experiencing identity theft. Users should keep a close eye out for scams and should employ any extra security measures that are available to them, such as multi-factor authentication.
The survey noted that the average amount of stolen digital assets were worth $97,583. However, only 29% of thefts were worth more than $10,000, and 39% were worth $1,000 or less. A significant portion of the losses incurred by respondents may have been caused by inadequate safety measures.
According to the report, crypto owners last monitored their assets six weeks ago, and their accounts have poor security.
The report wrote that “27% of users keep their crypto stored in an exchange account with no added protection, while only 34% use multi-factor authentication to protect their account.” Interestingly, 10% of respondents said they made no attempt to protect their crypto assets, while 14% did not store their private keys.
Only 34% of users indicated that they use multi-factor authentication to secure their accounts, while 27% have their cryptocurrency in an exchange account with no extra security. Furthermore, only 15% of users reported using a “cold wallet,” which stores cryptocurrency offline and away from the internet.
The report concluded that crypto owners must take steps to protect themselves in the absence of regulation.
Lawrence has covered some exciting stories in his career as a journalist, he finds blockchain-related stories very intriguing. He believes Web3 will change the world and wants everyone to be a part of it.
