Ethereum’s founder, Vitalik Buterin, confirmed that the hack of X (Twitter) account was the result of a SIM swapping attack.
$700,000 Worth of Cryptocurrency and NFTs Were Stolen
Ethereum’s co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, fell victim to a phishing attack on September 10th, and as a result of this attack, $700,000 worth of cryptocurrency and NFTs were stolen due to fraudulent posts made on Buterin’s X (Twitter) account.
Today, Buterin regained control of his T-Mobile account and revealed the details of the incident.
The attack began with a fake NFT gift used to take over the X account. Scammers encouraged users to click on a malicious link, resulting in a total loss of $700,000.
Phone Number Alone Is Sufficient to Compromise Social Media Accounts
Buterin noted that the attackers used a SIM swapping attack to take over the X account. What was particularly concerning was the fact that, even without using two-factor authentication, a phone number alone could potentially be enough to reset a social media account.
Added Phone Number for X (Twitter) Blue Subscription
Buterin suspects that he might have added the phone number when signing up for X (Twitter) Blue subscription. However, he couldn’t recall when he added it and couldn’t provide a specific date.
“I don’t remember when I added the number; my guess was that it was required for signing up for X (Twitter) Blue.”
Vitalik Buterin
