MyEtherWallet Hacked – Google DNS Servers Hijacked by Russians, 215 Ethereum Stolen

World’s most popular Ethereum wallet generator MyEtherWallet was hacked today and so far nearly 200,000 dollars worth of cryptocurrency has been moved to hackers wallet. Here is what we know so far.

MyEtherWallet says problem was not on their side, but on Google’s – multinational conglomerate’s DNS servers were hijacked using a well-known hacking technique. That made possible for attacker to redirect MyEtherwallet dot com to malicious phishing site.

Couple of DNS servers were hijacked to resolve https://t.co/xwxRJ4H4i8 users to be redirected to a phishing site. This is not on @myetherwallet side, we are in the process of verifying which servers to get it resolved asap.

— MyEtherWallet.com (@myetherwallet) April 24, 2018

It is being believed that attack was orchestrated from Russia. All visitors who ignored certificate warning were sent to server in Russia, before their funds were stolen. It is interesting to note that hacker’s wallet contains already over $17 million in Ethereum.

Users were alerted quickly after the attack. DNS servers have been fixed and the website is already working properly.

What does ‘phishing attack’ mean? Phishing is the attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and money), often for malicious reasons, by disguising as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. So when users tried to log in with their private keys, hackers could now empty their wallets with the obtained data.

In future, always remember to make sure you are connected to site through SSL Certificate connection. Remember to bookmark the site, although that will not save you from thieves, like it was unfortunately seen and proven today.

MyEtherWallet has their own in-depth guide how to not scammed in the future. Seven most important points are:

– Install EtherAddressLookup or MetaMask. These warn you if you go to a malcious website.
– Did you just get sent a link to a token sale, MyEtherWallet, etherdelta, Shapeshift, or Ebay? Don’t click it! Instead, search for that service on Google. Click the top one that is not an ad.
– You do not have to enter your private key for an airdrop. Don’t enter your private key on random sites!
– Double-Check the URL. Are there any weird characters? Symbols? It is shapshift instead of shapeshift? Or myelherwallet instead of myetherwallet?
– Token sale or exchange? Google the name of the token + “twitter”
– Check out the Twitter account. Everything looking good still?
– Sending to an address? Check out the address on etherscan.io.

Check out all pro-tips HERE