The Sandbox Taps Cybersecurity Firm Brandshield to Tackle Rising NFT Frauds

The Sandbox, a Hong Kong-based gaming platform, has announced a partnership with BrandShield, a UK-based digital risk protection and brand protection company, as a major step forward in cybersecurity.

The Sandbox announced on Wednesday that it has hired BrandShield to ensure the safety of cryptocurrency wallets and NFTs on its marketplace.

The Sandbox, the third-largest metaverse based on the Ethereum blockchain, allows users to create, share, and monetise their NFTs (like real estate) and gaming experiences. However, the metaverse landscape, where users can attend virtual concerts or buy digital assets like land, has been hit with exploits and frauds.

In this context, The Sandbox has partnered with BrandShield to secure NFT transactions via BrandShield’s set of robust anti-fraud solutions.

BrandShield uncovers and classifies various threats to prevent cyberattacks on crypto wallets. It evaluates the level of threats from different online platforms to retrieve threats that would otherwise remain undetected by traditional cybersecurity technology.

In a statement, Sebastien Borget, Chief Operations Officer of The Sandbox, talked about the development: “With its ability to monitor and protect against these attacks, BrandShield is a strategic partner to help identify faster and take down phishing attacks and various online threats from brand impersonators and bad actors.”

Borget further added: “In the open metaverse, users should be able to enjoy their true digital ownership rights and have new ways to create, store and trade value while having fun rather than having to worry about online threats.”

The Sandbox disclosed that their relationship with BrandShield began in the recent past. In March and April, BrandShield helped The Sandbox’s economy to operate securely after the cybersecurity platform identified and neutralised 120 phishing attacks and 58 fake social media accounts impersonating the metaverse platform.

Besides the current efforts to increase the company’s security measures, Borget said The Sandbox would also start educating its customers about fraud prevention techniques as the company will not be responsible for refunding money to phishing scam victims.

The executive elaborated: “Our primary focus is on educating our community and guiding them through our community managers and customer support. Since the wallet is where their identification and ownership are stored, not on our servers, we must provide best practices and guidelines for our players and creators so they can remain vigilant against all external threats."

Trends Affecting NFT Business

While major NFT marketplaces like Opensea, and The Sandbox, have witnessed significant growth, they have struggled to prevent theft and fraud.

In April, the Rarible NFT marketplace experienced a security flaw, which the firm acknowledged and installed a fix for the matter.

NFT frauds have become a common problem as cybercriminals use phishing links that imitate legitimate metaverse platforms to drain users’ digital wallets of assets.

Troubles are piling to these NFT platforms to address security issues as demand for NFTs cools amid a plunge in crypto prices.

The current sales of NFTs have dropped about 90% since September, according to the industry data tracker NonFungible. Competition has also increased from newer marketplaces built by established crypto firms like Coinbase.

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