How hackers target large fund?

[uchegod-21]

I used to read the advice that if you are using a hot wallet, do not leave too much bitcoin there, that it will attract the attention of hackers.
My question
Is there a specific means that hackers use to know the wallet that has much coins in it and begin to target it.

[NeuroticFish]

My question
Is there a specific means that hackers use to know the wallet that has much coins in it and begin to target it.

Bitcoin's blockchain is public. One can easily find out how much money is at an address (attention, at an address, not in a wallet - a wallet can have multiple addresses and linking them is not automatic), one can easily look for the addresses containing most coins.

But knowing which addresses are richer is not enough. I believe that the hackers will go for:

* known services (like exchanges) looking for vulnerabilities
* spreading malware, infecting computers, stealing all they can
* phishing
* ...

The advice for not keeping too much funds on hot wallet is not that the more the funds the more likely to be stolen, no. It's because hot wallets are not too safe and whether you have 20$ or 20000$, they can be stolen in the same way. And then it's better you don't have 20k there.

When we talk about bigger funds (and the meaning of "big" may differ from person to person) then cold storage, hardware wallet or, if meant to be HOLD for long, then also paper wallets are advised.
Hot wallets are for daily small funds. Like what you keep in your pocket when you enter a crowded bus/tram/metro.

[mk4]

Not much, unless the hacker knows you and is planning on targeting you specifically; either by targeting you with typical online scams that are just tailored for the specific target, or through $5 wrench attacks[1]. Because a huge majority of hackings are mass attempts, either through malware or social engineering(phishing, etc); then they just hope that they manage to lure in a holder with a good amount of bitcoin.

[1] https://cryptosec.info/wrench-attack/

[Coyster]

I used to read the advice that if you are using a hot wallet, do not leave too much bitcoin there, that it will attract the attention of hackers.

It's not the amount of funds in the wallet that attracts the hacker, there's little chance the hacker even knows if it's a huge or small sum in the wallet, but one thing is this, hot wallets are vulnerable to hacks, and funds in them can get stolen easier than in hardware wallets for example, it doesn't matter the amount of funds you have in a hot wallet, the thing is, it's susceptible to hacks, malwares and the rest, thus you can lose your funds in a flash. Having said that, the 'advice' could also make sense if we look at it in your way, I mean it's much better to lose a small sum, than something really large, then yes, if you must use a hot wallet, then just put only a minimal amount of funds there.

Is there a specific means that hackers use to know the wallet that has much coins in it and begin to target it.

The only thing I can prolly think of right now is that people who talk too much about being Bitcoin users, and how much Bitcoin they have could actually be giving people who want to steal their funds a sort of idea or inkling of how much Bitcoin they hodl, it can't be exact, but an estimate that can fuel a subsequent attack.

[sheenshane]

Is there a specific means that hackers use to know the wallet that has much coins in it and begin to target it.

Of course, there's a possibility that the hacker knows which wallet has a huge amount of Bitcoin because Bitcoin transaction on the blockchain is in public.  It's publicly disclose to anyone every transaction that can be done over the blockchain network but the problem is surely the hacker didn't know from who or where it comes from.  But yes, a hot wallet could be vulnerable to hacks if you always expose this from any transaction like using this on phishing exchange or any platform that could be used as a fraud.

Secure first your privacy and you always be fine, don't worry if you have control over your key, that is the most important to avoid hackers and always remember the golden rule.  "Not your key, not your coin".

[LostEcho]

This topic makes me remember a telegram channel that gives information on addresses that has huge amount of money in them, BTC, ETH, XRP and many others, they call them whales and I don't know how they are tracked.

[Lucius]

...they call them whales and I don't know how they are tracked.

As already mentioned, the blockchain is public and anyone can research any address and transaction. If someone manages to connect the address with the owner, then the owner can become the target of a hacker. Here are the top 100 BTC addresses with the highest amounts, some we know who they belong to, some are completely anonymous (for now).

If we want to ensure privacy (to some extent) and protect ourselves from malicious people, we should never do transactions in a way that calls our privacy into question. This means if I have 1 BTC and I want to buy something that costs 0.01 BTC, I will make sure that the seller does not find out that I have 1 BTC in a way that I will mix some BTC via mixers and after a while, I will use them to buy something. Of course always pay attention to every service you use, crypto is full of scammers, mixers are no exception.

[_act_]

I used to read the advice that if you are using a hot wallet, do not leave too much bitcoin there, that it will attract the attention of hackers.
My question
Is there a specific means that hackers use to know the wallet that has much coins in it and begin to target it.

Exchanges are known to have huge amount of coins, everyone knows that. Only what hackers will like to do is to create malware than can hack the exchange's hot wallet.

See this DeFi of a thing, see crosschain, hackers can easily know all these DeFi thing. Only what hackers will like to do is to look for means to hack and steal.

Those are the two coomom ones but custodial wallets are not excluded.

About your question, some people are just reckless about their online activities, even without the hackers knowing, there are means hackers can infect several devices of people like that and steal there coins, be it small or large amount. In addition to online safety, offline wallets are best.

See another one, the websites that will demand for seed phrase and people will put in their seed phrase and the coins are stolen.

Some are not even hack, it is your friend that stole it thinking it is hack.

[Rruchi man]

Because a huge majority of hackings are mass attempts, either through malware or social engineering(phishing, etc); then they just hope that they manage to lure in a holder with a good amount of bitcoin.

Yes, almost like throwing a net into a river, certainly different sizes of fish will be in the net when it is drawn out of the water likewise the method hackers use. Unfortunately your address may have the most btc out of the lot and you may feel that you were specifically targeted, usually not the case, unless you carelessly made yourself a target somehow.

[Fullcoinese]

Hackers always target a large number of wallet addresses,Even Binance Exchange has been hacked in the past. By the way,I've heard about wasabi can be used to disguise it,I mean the process of selling coins generated from hackers.Let me know if the news I hear turns out to be fake.

[hatshepsut93]

Hackers don't target wallets, they target entities that own wallets. There are two types of attacks - targeted attack and wide range attacks. Targeted attacks are attacks on servers or some sort of personalized phishing/social engineering. Wide range attacks are email spam, malware, automated calls, etc. Their goal is to steal from as much people as possible, regardless of how many sats are in their wallets.

For example, people who want to make brainwallets or their own homebrew crypto systems think that hackers will not target them because they are not rich, but they are ignoring the fact that hackers can make a wide range attack to try to hack as much weak wallets as possible.

[Questat]

If you got lucky that these hackers will see your wallet address and pick you up, they will trace all of your transactions and might found some leaks where thay can have the opportunity to crak your keys. But never it think this will be an easy work for them, it actually hard but because they are determined to do this, they have to find a way.
Well, of course, they are not dumb to spend a lot of time if they never get any and that is why they are targeting more on exchanges and whales wallets. They are unlikely not to touch casual investors, they let it live freely and never care them.

[uchegod-21]

The advice for not keeping too much funds on hot wallet is not that the more the funds the more likely to be stolen, no. It's because hot wallets are not too safe and whether you have 20$ or 20000$, they can be stolen in the same way. And then it's better you don't have 20k there.

I have learnt many things here. Especially the quote at above explained it all to my understanding. The advice not to keep too much fund on the hot Wallets is not that it is only much funds that are attacked. That it is better to always keep small amount. Thank you for this explanation.

This topic makes me remember a telegram channel that gives information on addresses that has huge amount of money in them, BTC, ETH, XRP and many others, they call them whales and I don't know how they are tracked.

I was thinking so, until Lucius gave his explanation above . He reminded us that the information are available for public seeing.

[Trojane]

Hackers have always devised a means to extract coins from several wallets or single wallets as the case maybe ...
 Cyber securities haven't designed a trick to conquer them in the aspect of sending personal mails or phishing etc, so hackers have taken this as a point of strategy to make out either single or mad attack on wallets without the consideration of having much coins or not; in the case of hot wallets.
I'm certain that even when cyber securities have made out means to stop this fraudulence issues, those hackers will always look for another means.
 

[Odusko]

In my little understanding most hackers work with information and since Bitcoin wallets are public hackers can simply find information about the amount of Bitcoin bitcoin in any wallet from the public larger.

[sunsilk]

In my little understanding most hackers work with information and since Bitcoin wallets are public hackers can simply find information about the amount of Bitcoin bitcoin in any wallet from the public larger.

It's blockchain and our bitcoin addresses that's public. The answers from above are what's happening and how these hackers get to know someone's bitcoin address. But not until you expose your bitcoin address through using it and sending it to another person which he's going to know how much you've got left onto that wallet, you'll remain hidden in the public.

Hackers won't know exactly what your bitcoin address is until you voluntarily post it online. No one can hack a wallet if he just know the public address, there's no way of hacking - CMIIW. And the explanations above are all correct, it's about targeting the person if somebody knew that he owns bitcoin or probably told a hint that they do.