Why Is Security Important?
Maika Isogawa is the founder of Webacy, which describes themselves as a crypto security layer. As she explains, crypto security can be somewhat archaic - for a lot of users, it’s a piece of paper with 12-24 words written on it.
Seed phrases are a double-edged sword because they are easy to lose if you’re doing it right. When you have multiple copies of seed phrase - or worse, digital ones - you open yourself up to a number of vulnerabilities. Many people have been hacked through iCloud, for example.
Multisig wallets are an option, but aren’t viable for most users who aren’t handling huge sums of money. Plus, most attacks happen to individuals, not large entities.
So what are some common ways people get hacked?
Attack Vectors
Maika boils down the most common attack vectors into two categories: social hacks and stupid hacks.
- Social Hacks: These hacks including phishing attacks, bridge hacks, unsafe links, etc. People commonly click links from social media, so this is an easy attack angle for hackers. Users think they are visiting a trusted website, but it’s really a fake page. These types of hacks are best avoided by always visited bookmarked URLs!
- Stupid Hacks: Accidentally losing (or losing access) to your seed phrase. Check out episode #5 Understanding Cold Storage & Protecting Your Private Key for more info on how to avoid this!
What Does Webacy Offer?
Webacy’s philosophy is to never see, touch, or ask for your seed phrase - which should be a golden rule in crypto (never share your seed). Webacy accomplishes an additional layer of security through smart contracts. Webacy offers a number of security suite tools, including notifications that require users to approve transactions. This popular tool is known as “Wallet Watch” and allows users to receive messages about what’s going on in their wallet.
Other products include backup tools, allowing users to set backup wallets should they lose access to their original. Webacy also has a “Panic Button” that is essentially an “emergency eject” feature. This allows users to immediately transfer all their assets to the predetermined backup wallet if a hack is occurring in real time.
Links
- Maika’s Company Webacy - https://www.webacy.com/
- Hot wallet episode
- Transaction simulation extensions she mentions
- Coinbase Wallet Transaction Previews - https://help.coinbase.com/en/wallet/dapps-and-defi/transaction-previews
- Webacy raised money - https://world.webacy.com/why-a-safer-web3-is-critical-for-the-survival-of-our-industry-why-we-raised-5mm-to-power-safety-products-at-webacy/
- Instagram abandons NFT integration - https://thedefiant.io/meta-abandons-nfts
- Starbucks NFT project https://odyssey.starbucks.com/#/landing
- Grimmies NFT project - https://opensea.io/collection/grimmies-by-webacy