Physical Coercion
Crypto asset owners faces a greater risk of wrench attacks than traditional asset holders, since it is so portable and transactions are irreversible. While physical attacks are rare, they are increasing as adoption is going mainstream. Although other forms of wealth are harder to transfer, we are beginning to see increased ransom demands of crypto assets from targets who are traditionally wealthy.
Mitigation:
- Improve your privacy so that attackers can't find your physical location in order to attack you.
- Harden your physical security to deter / stop attacks who do find you.
- Store keys in multiple locations to increase the difficulty of coercion. The attacker has to steal wallets from multiple locations, require more time and resources and increasing the chance that the attacker will be noticed and caught.