It is never a good sign when a popular online wallet service provider gets hijacked. Ethereum Classic enthusiasts may have heard about what happened to ClassicEtherWallet. It appears cybercriminals successfully hijacked the website, which means users could risk losing funds. For the time being, those who run the software client on their computer should not be affected by this problem.
CLASSICETHERWALLET.COM IS NOT SAFE RIGHT NOW
Late last night, the ClassicEtherwallet domain and website were successfully hijacked by an unknown attacker. A new piece of code had been implemented on the website, which is a clear attempt to steal users’ private keys. It is unclear who is behind this attack, but it is evident a lot of Ethereum Classic enthusiasts had funds at risk. Rest assured there will be a fair bit of speculation regarding this attack over the coming days.
It is important to note this hijacking never affected the API on MyEtherWallet, the project’s GitHub page or the associated Chrome extension. This particular issue only affects the ClassicEtherWallet website, and anyone who was unfortunate enough to pass their wallet’s private key on the platform during the time of this attack. There are still a lot of uncertainties regarding whether or not the issue has been rectified so far, although a cautious approach remains more than warranted for now.
According to various sources, someone successfully hijacked the ClassicEtherWallet domain name through social engineering. This means someone has been in contact with the domain registrar and successfully provided enough information to gain ownership of the domain name. No one knows for sure what information has been provided or how it was obtained in the first place, though. Social engineering attacks are not all that uncommon, unfortunately.
All of this highlights the importance of using a proper cryptocurrency wallet at all times. We recently highlighted different Ethereum Classic wallet solutions, including ClassicEtherWallet. All of the other alternatives are still safe from harm for the time being. A hardware wallet solution, such as the Ledger Nano S, will always be the best option, though. It keeps private keys and funds safe from harm at any given time.
Additionally, the upcoming Ethereum Classic Emerald Wallet may alleviate a lot of these concerns as well. We will know more once the beta version of the wallet is released, which is expected to take place in the coming weeks. Secure solutions are in high demand, that much is evident. Anyone who keeps funds in ClassicEtherWallet is still safe, as long as they have not logged in by pasting their private key over the past 24 hours. For now, it is anybody’s guess if and how much ETC may have been stolen due to this hijacking attack.
Thankfully, the Classic Ether Wallet team has gotten some help from Cloudflare to resolve this issue. More specifically, the ClassicEtherWallet.com website is now marked as a suspected phishing site, until the platform is fully operational again. It is always better to warn people about a potential phishing site even if the threat has subsided. For now, the ETC community is anxiously waiting to see how this situation will develop.