He thought his phone was safe but lost Bitcoin worth $ 24 million

One investor of cryptocurrencies lost a $ 24 million bitcoin after being victimized by a new type of breach known as calling card swap, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Michael Terpin was attacked on January 7, 2018, days after Bitcoin reached its record high.

The hackers stole about 1,500 Bitcoins by controlling his phone number and using the Forgot Password option to access his email.

By owning the two personal accounts, the hackers hacked into Michael Terpin's encryption wallet, stealing digital assets and selling them quickly.

Bitcoin was traded between $ 16,969 and $ 15,790 per piece on January 7, 2018, while the digital currency is now trading around $ 8,700.

A call-card swap attack involves stealing an individual's phone number and using it to access many other accounts. The attack is highly accurate, and the odds of being randomly infected are small compared to other breaches.

Once a hacker has hacked into a user's email account, they can search for proof of asset acquisition and target trading applications, bank accounts, and encryption portfolios.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was attacked by the swap card on August 30, allowing hackers to post racist and anti-Semitic tweets on his account.

The call card swap attack in January was the first of its kind for investor Michael Terben. It was hacked in the same way seven months ago, but lost no assets at the time.

The investor in cryptocurrencies took additional security measures related to his AT&T account after the first breach, including the six-digit PIN required for any future changes, and also suspended authentication via text messaging for Google Authentication.

`` On a scale of 1 to 10, I think my security protection was 9.8 or higher, but these hackers continue to target people all the time, '' Michael said, pointing out that he believes employees at an AT&T-authorized store have given hackers control over his phone number.