Brave launches anti-phishing features to protect crypto users

The open-source web browser developed by Brave Software has added new tricks to ensure crypto holders are safe from phishing attacks

The privacy-based browser announced yesterday via Twitter it was incorporating anti-phishing solutions from PhishFort to protect crypto users.

The tweet read, “Brave now uses PhishFort’s open source anti-phishing solutions for our in-browser Crypto Wallets to better protect our users. PhishFort’s spam list detects crypto scams and immediately warns our users of any suspicious domains”.

Phishing is a form of cybercrime that involves fraudulent attempts to obtain sensitive data, such as account passwords, banking and credit card details, which is achieved by criminals posing as a trustworthy entity. Phishing communications can happen via text message, email or telephone.

Many phishing cases targeting crypto holders have been reported in the past with several users losing millions to these social engineered attacks. It has only been a week since an Electrum wallet holder lost 1,400 bitcoins translating to over $14 million in a phishing attack.

Specific details about the incorporation of the anti-phishing solutions into Brave haven’t been disclosed yet. At the moment, we can only piece together ideas from PhishFort’s June report.

A section of the report reads, “When the reward is as valuable and anonymous as cryptocurrency assets and secrets, these attackers quickly iterate and target the most used and most talked about apps. When you’re a crypto-user, your username and password are only the start of your problems — and phishers are beginning to realize this…and they’re beginning to exploit the specific tools that we use to interface with our crypto”.

PhishFort has previously worked with several companies used by crypto owners to protect their users from phishing attacks. In April, for instance, the anti-phishing company helped remove 49 Google Chrome web-browser extensions. These extensions had targeted digital asset holders with phishing attacks in an attempt to steal their data.

Brave is famed for its ability to block website trackers and offer a convenient way of transacting cryptocurrencies through its Basic Attention Token rewards. The browser continues to be a popular choice for crypto users.