A old friend lost 0.5BTC because of a browser extension

[Phoenix Anka]

If you're storing 0.5 Bitcoin for future reference, what could be more secure than a hardware wallet? That's $60,000 in today's money. In this internet world, where malicious attackers are rampant, a hardware wallet is a lifesaver. It's a good reminder, but I feel sorry for your friend.

[WhoYouCantKill]

You are correct. The issues isn't from Exodus but the point  is that the wallet was in a device that is compromised. Software wallets on personal computer or phone carries risk always as a single phishing link, extension or even malware is able to drain them out.
A hardware wallet may not be exposed in like manner as the private keys don't touch the PC. It is misplaced to put the blame on Exodus, because it did its job, yet security breaks at tr point of weakness, and in such it happened in the users environment.
Conclusively, the loss was from human mistake, rather than wallet brand.
When he needs peace of mind in the near future, he will be having the need for a hardware wallet and well arrange security habits.

[headingnorth]

Just like a physical wallet you carry in your pocket, a hot wallet is for storing your spending money only,
not your life savings. That's like walking around with $60 thousand dollars cash in your pocket instead of
keeping it in a bank.

Why was your friend using a web3 wallet to store bitcoin of all things? Shitcoin wallets like Exodus and Metamask
are not very secure. They are a hacker's paradise. That's why I don't mess around with shitcoins.

[X-ray]

There's just so many many ways you can get your data stolen in a PC where it's connected to the internet.

A newly generated wallet in air gapped PC is thousand times more secure than a browser extension, I've seen countless people getting drained left and right and even got phished.

This should be a great lesson for people. If we want a truly secure wallet without flaw, we need an air gapped wallet.

[macson]

Some people need to learn their lesson when they've already experienced the consequences of their carelessness. If your friend had considered switching to a hardware wallet from the start, he might have avoided this unfortunate incident. However, he underestimated the risk and chose to store it on a device, which is quite vulnerable to malware or virus infections.

The internet is full of viruses and malware, and we never know when they will infect our devices. Therefore, the best course of action is to separate our Bitcoin holdings from the devices we frequently use. A hardware wallet shouldn't be expensive, especially if you hold a significant amount of Bitcoin. Alternatively, store your assets on an air-gapped device, so they are completely isolated and inaccessible online.

[adaseb]

If you frequent Twitter, you will see many people who have 7 figures in a browser extension and without a hardware wallet. We at Bitcointalk are different because we all have been hacked before and we are careful and use Cold storage or hardware wallets. But many of these new users have never experienced that and they just risk it.

When watching the streams of them buying meme coin you can see that they are not using any type of hardware wallet. Just $500,000 or so sitting in an extension and using Windows which is the most unsecure OS out there and you just know something will happen and those coins will be stolen.

[viljy]

Actually, a wallet is essentially an interface for accessing the blockchain. With exactly the same degree of security, you can store BTC for a long time on a cold wallet as on a hardware one. And you should prefer wallets in the form of an application, but you need to be very careful with browser extensions.

[pawanjain]

So I have someone who I personally introduce to Bitcoin few years back, he is married and living well for himself, he got a inheritance money from his grandma before she passed and he used all that money to buy Bitcoin.

The mistake he made was storing half of one Bitcoin in Exodus wallet, and I could have fought for him that he is a very careful type, the BTC was moved not very long ago and it is been sitting in his wallet for few years, he haven't tell this to his partner because they have planned to buy a house with the money.

I did told him to go for a hardware wallet that 0.5 Bitcoin is too much to be stored in an exodus wallet, I though he listened, later he succumb to the likely of getting phished because the only thing he remembered installing is a browser extension.

Exodus could not even be the bad wallet here but his own stupid mistake, if this Bitcoin was in a hardware wallet it could still be here. No Bitcoin is safe on your PC, even if they are sitting in the wallet for years one silly mistake can claim it all.

He hates Exodus now but this company security has nothing to do when a desktop is compromised.

Exodus is a non-custodial wallet and we can hold our keys to the wallet.
So how come a browser extension can get his funds lost while he was holding the keys to his wallet ?
Is it possible that he was holding the keys to the wallet on his desktop PC itself, may be in a plain text file ?
Otherwise, I don't think it would be that easy to lose funds using Exodus.

[Outhue]

It seems people forget things too fast in this space, I don't forget that Exodus was vulnerable some years back and that vulnerability make many users lost their funds, I am surprised that no one remembers again.

Exodus is a crap Bitcoin wallet and it should be avoided at all cost, and also this is a wallet that functions online, it is a bad idea to use similar wallet to store your Bitcoin, a non custodial wallet that works like a cold storage is always the best, I hope he learnt his lessons but don't tell him that Exodus is innocent, they are not.

If you make him believe that Exodus isn't the problem he could go back and download Exodus again thinking he just have to keep his recovery seed more safer.

[Odohu]

How can you have 0.5BTC and store it in a device connected to the internet? That is the highest level of carelessness. Assuming he even want to dedicated one laptop to that if he does not like a hardware wallet, he can comfortably buy a laptop to store that Bitcoin, instead he choose to play with it and therefore lost it. Well, its possible that is just small money for him or Bitcoin he got without stress else he would have been more careful with it.

[Publictalk792]

Ohhhh! This is sad but necessary lesson which is showing crypto security is very important and your friend lost his Bitcoin not because Exodus wallet was bad but because he installed bad browser extension on his computer which is common way so with this thieves steal private keys. This is showing that no amount of Bitcoin is truly safe on internet connected computer no matter how long it was there because one simple mistake can destroy everything. This tragic event is showing why many people right to recommend cold means hardware wallet as it store private key offline it means thieves could not have stolen money without friend physically approving transfer.

[Lucius]

~snip~
I did told him to go for a hardware wallet that 0.5 Bitcoin is too much to be stored in an exodus wallet, I though he listened, later he succumb to the likely of getting phished because the only thing he remembered installing is a browser extension.

Exodus could not even be the bad wallet here but his own stupid mistake, if this Bitcoin was in a hardware wallet it could still be here. No Bitcoin is safe on your PC, even if they are sitting in the wallet for years one silly mistake can claim it all.

It is impossible to say what would have happened if your friend had a hardware wallet, because there are many cases where people are "hacked" even when they keep their private keys with HW. If you're wondering how this is possible, then I'll give you at least two reasons why this happens.

The first consists of the victim receiving a phishing email that appears to have been sent by the company that sold him the hardware wallet, and in which he is warned about some critical vulnerability that can be patched by clicking on a link in the email and on that link the victim is instructed to type in his seed to verify something, which is of course nonsense.

The second way people most often lose their coins is to save their seed on their computer as plain text, or save it in an email or cloud that someone can then hack and steal everything from them.

A hardware wallet is definitely something everyone should have, but it can't protect against people's stupidity in doing something they shouldn't.

[ndutndut]

How can you have 0.5BTC and store it in a device connected to the internet? That is the highest level of carelessness. Assuming he even want to dedicated one laptop to that if he does not like a hardware wallet, he can comfortably buy a laptop to store that Bitcoin, instead he choose to play with it and therefore lost it. Well, its possible that is just small money for him or Bitcoin he got without stress else he would have been more careful with it.

Although there are already numerous threads about crypto asset hacking on this forum, I think it's good to see another case arise and create a thread, as it serves as a reminder for us all to remain cautious when storing our assets. Thank you to the OP as this thread will be a learning experience for us all.

We also need to emphasize that as crypto grows, threats to the security of our assets will increase. Therefore, everyone especially beginners must be concerned about wallet security because crypto is inherently vulnerable to attacks such as hacking and phishing. If you underestimate security, you can lose access to your assets in a short time. Cryptocurrency has no central authority that can help recover your lost assets. So if your assets are stolen or lost, they cannot be recovered. Therefore the condition of your wallet is entirely your own responsibility. Losing 0.5 BTC is painful, especially if it's due to your own carelessness using a browser extension. Therefore you must be aware of the need to improve your wallet security in the future to prevent further financial losses.

[HONDACD125]

Keeping 0.5 Bitcoin on an online wallet is a ridiculous mistake. He has learned his lesson, but at what cost? Around $60,000, and that money is A LOT, not matter which part of the world you live in. For some countries, it's a life-changing amount because you can literally do everything if you have an amount like that; such as buying a house, a car, and every other luxury, and on top of that, you can even start a business of your own, but he lost it all, only because he was too lazy or confident that his funds are safe.

His first mistake was to keep the funds in an online wallet, and his second mistake was to have that wallet in a device which he uses for normal stuff. I mean, if you can easily afford to buy a new device, since you have that much money, you should at least have a separate device for your financial holdings or financial operations, so that you don't have the risk of getting phised or have your funds stolen through some malware, etc.

[Cookdata]

I did told him to go for a hardware wallet that 0.5 Bitcoin is too much to be stored in an exodus wallet, I though he listened, later he succumb to the likely of getting phished because the only thing he remembered installing is a browser extension.

Exodus could not even be the bad wallet here but his own stupid mistake, if this Bitcoin was in a hardware wallet it could still be here. No Bitcoin is safe on your PC, even if they are sitting in the wallet for years one silly mistake can claim it all.

He hates Exodus now but this company security has nothing to do when a desktop is compromised.

0.5 Bitcoin is half a thousand American dollars, you mean to tell me that your friend doesn't have the money to buy $200 dollar hardware wallet. The $200 is even an estimation, most often high end hardware wallet are $180 and low as $70, so that amount is too high. Let's even say the person have a phone, why not use phone only to keep the Bitcoin or you want to tell me he doesn't know much about after owing 0.5 Bitcoin, I'm sad and angry on his behalf to be honest.

In case people don't know about extension, there are some extension that can read your copy and paste, there are some that can even read everything on your computer page anytime you are interacting with another extension. So, when you copy a sensitive thing on your keyboard, it possible the extension was able to copy the private keys or modified something on his laptop unaware, all this can make your Bitcoin to disappear over a night.

[henry_of_skalitz]

You either stay out of the Web with the info to secure the access and custody to your wallet / wallets, or you suffer in the process to understand it, simple as that.

[X-ray]

Keeping 0.5 Bitcoin on an online wallet is a ridiculous mistake. He has learned his lesson, but at what cost? Around $60,000, and that money is A LOT, not matter which part of the world you live in. For some countries, it's a life-changing amount because you can literally do everything if you have an amount like that; such as buying a house, a car, and every other luxury, and on top of that, you can even start a business of your own, but he lost it all, only because he was too lazy or confident that his funds are safe.

His first mistake was to keep the funds in an online wallet, and his second mistake was to have that wallet in a device which he uses for normal stuff. I mean, if you can easily afford to buy a new device, since you have that much money, you should at least have a separate device for your financial holdings or financial operations, so that you don't have the risk of getting phised or have your funds stolen through some malware, etc.

Yeah man, at that point it's whether the OP's old friend willing to shell out $100 for a hardware wallet or losing the entire $60k.

If it were me, of course i'd just prefer to shell out $100 no brainer decision for me. But i'm not surprised, there are people out there saving millions in BTC with just exodus wallet .

[Free Market Capitalist]

Yeah man, at that point it's whether the OP's old friend willing to shell out $100 for a hardware wallet or losing the entire $60k.

If it were me, of course i'd just prefer to shell out $100 no brainer decision for me. But i'm not surprised, there are people out there saving millions in BTC with just exodus wallet .

I don't think there are many; I think this case is going to be the exception rather than the rule. An example of the saying, “A fool and his money are soon parted.”  That's assuming the story told by the OP is true. I'm not saying it is or isn't, but we have no way of knowing for sure. Obviously, anyone with a modicum of intelligence would prefer to spend $100 to ensure that they cannot be robbed of $60K. Although, given how clever the guy seems to be, it would not be surprising if, had he purchased the hardware wallet, he had stored the seeds online, in iCloud, or similar.

[Yablee0]

It could be the browser extension. There are many fake browser extensions now. But maybe it is because of another thing if he is using his laptop to download apps, extensions and files.

0.5 BTC today is around $60000. To get a hardware wallet or a cold storage set up will be cheap as low as $50 to $300. Some people will think nothing will happen until it has happened.

That's is a whole lot of money for someone to lost at of carelessness it is very painful and frustrating, I just hope he possess the heart in bearing such huge lost.

People's fails to attend to sensitive issues till something bad happened before they will realize. That's one bad thing in procrastination, we keep prolonging important and sensitive matters that ought to have been attended to long time ago, assuming he did the needful by storing such huge assets on any of the hardware wallet these wouldn't have happened, perhaps it will serve as a lesson to others.

[SmartGold01]

It could be the browser extension. There are many fake browser extensions now. But maybe it is because of another thing if he is using his laptop to download apps, extensions and files.

0.5 BTC today is around $60000. To get a hardware wallet or a cold storage set up will be cheap as low as $50 to $300. Some people will think nothing will happen until it has happened.

I do not really encourage using of extension because they are really dangerous and prone to hack. Just as you said it’s good to get a hardware wallet or a non custodial wallet to store their assets than using an external attached wallet to the browser to store their assets. From how I understood it, they have no control of their asset because the developer could phish their funds from there end.