As a result of a phishing attack through the hacked X account of Vitalik Buterin, 700 thousand dollars were lost
Date: 2023-09-11 Author: Karina Ziganova Categories: BUSINESS
The account of Vitalik Buterin, who is the co-founder of Ethereum and previously used Twitter, was hacked late in the evening of September 9. Vitalik's father, Dmitry Buterin, confirmed the hack with his X account.
Vitaly used his account hack to promote a fishing link that stole cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from the wallets of those interacting with it. According to detective ZachXBT, the hacker took money from victims in the amount of about $691,000.
The fake post, which had since been deleted and was declared a fraudulent project with the aim of capturing victims, deceived them with words about the celebration of “Proto-Danksharding Coming to Ethereum.” In order to mint a fake free NFT, the hacker posted a malicious link. The NFT counterfeit currency mint had a 24-hour time limit, forcing victims to act immediately.
Among those stolen as a result of the attack on Ethereum was an NFT CryptoPunk worth 153ETH, or about $250,000, owned by technology developer Bok Hu. The criminal sold most of the NFT, with a large portion of the proceeds still in the hacker's wallet.
According to user X, Vitaly’s negligence led to the attack. But the Ethereum founder “must take responsibility” and compensate everyone affected, the user said. Adding:
Vitaly Buterin: “You have more than enough personal wealth to protect affected users.” If one of the founders of another tradfi platform posts hyperlinks, those leading to fraud on that platform will be required to do the same. Otherwise, there is a risk of receiving a class action lawsuit.
One of the users also suggested that Vitalik’s account was hacked by replacing the SIM card. After replacing the SIM card, attackers gain control of the victim's phone number, forcing the cellular operator to transfer the number from the existing card to a new one.
However, ZachXBT pointed out that this assumption has no basis. He said:
It remains to be seen whether this was a SIM card replacement. Vitalik is a big target where one could use a panel or pay an insider.
