The creation of Bitcoin in 2009 and its subsequent success have changed the game in worldwide currency markets. The innumerable cryptocurrencies that have spawned following the lead of Bitcoin offer a decentralized digital currency that is autonomous from the control of central banking systems and can offer some degree of anonymity.
This decentralization is one of strengths and most appealing features of cryptocurrencies and it has proven valuable in recent times. In 2019, Venezuelans massively adopted cryptocurrencies as a way to bypass the hyperinflation suffered by the local economy.
As the name suggests, cryptocurrencies derive their unique properties from cryptography. From the users’ perspective, having a crypto wallet simply means to possess a pair of cryptographic keys. One key is private and it is used to sign transactions, such as sending money to a recipient. The other key is public and can be used by anyone to verify the legitimacy of the transactions signed with the corresponding private key. …
Biometric authentication is becoming ubiquitous on mobile devices, where users routinely unlock their smartphone using a fingerprint or the face.
This is usually perceived as very secure, indeed biometric authentication complies with the principle of using multiple independent factors for user authentication, in this case something that the user is or does, as opposed to passwords (something that the user knows) or security tokens (something that the user has).
Differently from passwords and security tokens, a biometric feature cannot be replaced. If passwords are usually sent to a remote server to perform user authentication, sending fingerprint or face data to a remote server would expose the user to much higher risks, since the disclosure of biometric data would be irreversible. …
SIM-swap scams are one of the most common attacks to mobile phone users and leave them vulnerable to identity theft. In this article, we explain the threat they pose for multifactor authentication systems where codes are sent via SMS to a person’s mobile.
In short, a SIM-swap scam exploits the ability of your service provider to port your phone number from one SIM card to another. …
About