Ethereum (ETH) Twitter Hack: Vitalik Buterin’s X Account Loses $700,000 in Phishing Scam

Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin seems to have been targeted by a Twitter hacker, resulting in the theft of $691,000 from users who clicked on a corrupted link he shared in his Twitter feed.

The breach came to light last Saturday when a post on Buterin’s Twitter account announced the release of a collection of commemorative non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from software provider Consensys. This malicious link, potentially visible to many of his 4.9 million followers, led unsuspecting individuals to connect their wallets to mint the NFT. However, in reality, it only allowed the hacker to siphon off their funds.

WARNING! I JUST LOST A FEW PUNKS!

DON’T INTERACT! pic.twitter.com/lS4VvlHdVa

— luckytimes.eth beautifuldaytobealive.eth (@BokkyPooBah) September 9, 2023

Crypto Twitter users swiftly sounded the alarm regarding the fraudulent link. However, the initial indication of Buterin’s hacking came from his father, Dmitriy “Dima” Buterin. Although the post has been deleted since, the harm was already inflicted, with several victims reporting the loss of access to their wallet funds

Within an hour, it appeared that the hacker had absconded with more than $147,000, but this sum rapidly escalated to $691,000, as disclosed by blockchain investigator ZachXBT.

Update: $691k drained (another 33% in drainer fee address) pic.twitter.com/AVIShqDlMU

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) September 9, 2023

Buy Ethereum (ETH) quickly and securely with PayPal, credit card or bank transfer at eToro. Visit Website <<### Buterin’s Silence and Suspicious NFT Transfer

In the day following the initial report of the hack, Buterin has refrained from making any public statements about the incident. His most recent post remains a retweet of a September 6th message. Furthermore, ZachZPT noted that the hacker transferred a pilfered NFT to Buterin.

The exact number of affected users remains uncertain. Still, this recent occurrence contributes to an expanding series of social media hacks that have resulted in the theft of substantial token amounts. With numerous losses piling up, there has been an ongoing discussion regarding whether developers should bear responsibility for compensating victims for their losses

Furthermore, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao criticized Twitter’s account security, stating that it lacks the robustness of traditional financial account security, raising concerns about the overall security of Twitter’s platform.

It requires a more extensive set of features, such as two-factor authentication (2FA), where the login ID should be distinct from the handle or email

Zhao referred to requiring users to provide two sets of information to verify their identity, known as two-factor authentication.

Two-factor authentication is a highly recommended security measure that necessitates two pieces of information to confirm a user’s identity before granting access to an account. While Twitter offers this feature, it is only accessible to users who subscribe to Twitter Blue. Brute forcing is a hacking technique in which attackers repeatedly attempt ious passwords to gain unauthorized access to an account.

How’s the performance of ETH?

This security breach could also influence the overall perception of ETH. According to Santiment’s data, there has been a significant decrease in the overall sentiment toward ETH recently.

Furthermore, Ethereum’s price saw a decrease. Currently, Ethereum is trading at $1,593, indicating a reduction in its worth.

Nevertheless, despite this price decline, the count of Ethereum addresses containing non-zero balances continued to rise. According to data from Glassnode, the number of addresses with non-zero balances reached an all-time peak of 105,721,874.

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