Old Attacks Are New Again: NFTs, Rugpulls, and Cryptophishing

Presented at Kernelcon 2022, April 1, 2022, 11:35 a.m. (20 minutes)

Old attacks are new again! Surely you have heard by now that non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are sweeping the world by storm. DappRadar, as reported by Reuters, estimated NFT sales volume totalled $24.9 billion in 2021. At the crossroads of new technologies and vast sums of capital there exists a ripe target for scams and phishing, despite all the lessons the infosec community has learned. This talk opens with a brief coverage of generic blockchain concepts and NFTs before exploring how scammers have leveraged this new space to part users from their hard earned cash. Attendees leave this talk with pointers on how to protect yourself and your loved ones.

Presenters:

• Heather Lawrence
  Heather Lawrence is a security data scientist for ThreatKey, Inc. who is pursuing her PhD in Security at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. She earned her undergraduate and masters degrees in Computer Engineering from the University of Central Florida. In previous lives she was a USN nuke, VA photographer, NCCDC winner, Hack@UCF mom, and darknet marketplace miner. Her current research centers on the application of machine learning to intrusion detection. She serves the community through volunteer work for DEF CON and B-Sides Orlando.