Twitter has seen Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin fall prey to a hacker. The act resulted in the theft of $691,000 from individuals who followed a corrupted link shared on his profile.
The incident was initially detected on a Saturday when a post appeared on Buterin’s timeline. The post is announcing the launch of commemorative non-fungible tokens (NFTs) by software provider Consensys. The deceptive link is potentially exposed to Buterin’s 4.9 million followers. Which deceived victims into connecting their wallets to mint NFTs, an opportunity for the hacker to absorb their assets.
On Crypto Twitter, users promptly raised the alarm about the fraudulent link. But the first public acknowledgment of Buterin’s hacking came from his father, Dmitriy “Dima” Buterin, who later deleted the post. Unfortunately, several victims had already reported losing access to their wallet funds by then. The hacker seized over $147,000 within an hour, which subsequently escalated to $691,000, according to blockchain investigator @ZachXBT.
In the day following the initial report of the hack, Buterin has remained silent on the incident. @ZachZPT revealed that the hacker had even sent a pilfered NFT to Buterin.
Binance CEO’s Opinion
This event adds to a series of social media hacks that have resulted in the theft of substantial token amounts. Although the exact number of affected users remains unknown. As a result of these losses, there has been an ongoing debate about how developers themselves should compensate victims.
Questions about Twitter’s security measures have also arisen, including concerns raised by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao. The CEO noted that Twitter’s account security falls short compared to traditional financial accounts.
Zhao called for enhanced features like two-factor authentication (2FA), distinct login IDs from handles or email addresses, and other measures to bolster security. Two-factor authentication, a recommended defense mechanism, is available on Twitter but is limited to users who subscribe to Twitter Blue. Brute forcing, a hacking tactic involving repeated password attempts, has been employed by hackers to breach accounts.
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