As traders, we usually focus on securing our crypto exchange accounts and making sure they will not be hacked, but sometimes the problem is not there, it's actually the email address we are using.
So I read this
warning from Singapore Police where attackers first gain access to their victim's email account, and once inside they can easily search the inbox and find out what crypto exchanges you are using. And because they are smart, they can create email rules to hide security notifications, then request a password reset from the exchange and intercept the reset link or verification email without the user noticing it.
So here's the usual format of the attack:
Your old or reused password gets leaked.
[1] They gain access to your email
[2] They search which crypto exchanges you are using
[3] Hide security emails using inbox rules
[4] Reset your exchange password
[5] If successful, they gain access to the account
So even if the exchange has good security, if our email is not properly secured, there is only so much the exchange can do to protect us. For me, using a different password for your email and exchange is really a must, and if there is 2FA available we should activate it.
Based on the report, we should also check our email forwarding settings, inbox rules and active sessions from time to time because unusual changes there can be a sign that someone already gained access to our email. With this incident it tells us that securing the exchange account alone is not enough, because the email connected to it can also become the easiest way for an attacker to get inside.
As long as you have 2FA authentication on your cryptoexchange account, simply gaining access to their E-Mail will not be enough to withdraw their coins. But then again, anybody who is clumsy enough to get their account info and passwords leaked is probably also clumsy enough to simply not have 2FA authentication set up in the first place. Although many exchanges kind of force it nowadays...
