
- FTX claims portal has resumed operation after accounts were affected by a cybersecurity incident in August.
- The attack targeted Kroll, the third-party agent leading the creditor claims for the FTX bankruptcy
- No FTX accounts were affected by the incident and freezing was done merely for precaution.
- Meanwhile, an Arkham report shows that Mark Cuban’s attack could have been way worse.
FTX exchange brought in Kroll, a cybersecurity agent to lead the process of making the firm’s creditors whole again. However, on August 19, the firm was victim to a “SIM swapping” attack. Specifically, the exploiter sophisticatedly targeted a T-Mobile US., Inc. account belonging to a Kroll employee, gaining access to files that contained private user data about the creditors from BlockFi, FTX, and Genesis. This led Kroll to freeze all user accounts that the attack affected while acknowledging that “no FTX passwords or KYC information were exposed in the breach.”
Also Read: Bankrupt FTX to pay creditors in dollars as it plans to liquidate $3 billion in crypto
FTX claims portal back online
In a recent update, the FTX exchange has announced that the claims portal is back online, after a thorough review and assessment of the Kroll cybersecurity incident. Similarly, the previously frozen accounts, whose data, including personal phone numbers, had been accessed by the exploiter, have been unfrozen.
The announcement is therefore a call to action for claimants to resume activities on the platform. Further, the exchange articulates having put in place “additional security measures on the claims portal to prevent similar attacks in future.
Recently, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) warned users of phishing attacks, spreading awareness, with the FXStreet team explaining, “Phishing is a type of cryptocurrency scam where victims give their private keys or other personal information. The attacker gains the trust of the victim through a misspelling in a URL or a link to click, in a phishing email.”
New rounds of phishing attacks already underway for the poor users of FTX, BlockFi, Genesis, as a result of the Kroll data leak, which seems to be a result of a SIM swap on an employee.♂️
Learn to protect yourself. Learn about phishing attackshttps://t.co/AtcevQciVR pic.twitter.com/pbHFnhsArK
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) August 27, 2023
It comes as Phishing attacks become prevalent in the crypto scene, with Mark Cuban being the latest victim, as reported, where the billionaire lost up to $870,000 in the attack. Based on the report, Cuban’s MetaMask wallet was drained of ETH, MATIC, USDT, and a few other tokens in under five minutes.
Mark Cuban Confirms Getting Hacked for $870K on MetaMask. This happens to the most experienced of crypto users.
Read this article I wrote 3 years ago. There is a section about downloading software, wait 72 hrs, etc.
Stay #SAFUhttps://t.co/Kp6VeKirgZ
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) September 16, 2023
An Arkham report detailed the exploitation, showing that “the damage could have been MUCH worse,” considering Cuban had approximately $2.5M USDC on Polygon, in the same wallet.
Mark Cuban’s address “mcuban” was drained for $870K last night.
What some may have missed is that the damage could have been MUCH worse. Cuban had ~$2.5M USDC on Polygon, in the same wallet!
Luckily, he managed to transfer it to Coinbase without the hacker realizing. pic.twitter.com/DVoygYC88f
— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) September 16, 2023
In his cautionary post, CZ articulated that while the fight against phishing attacks continues, users should avoid clicking on links in emails about security incidents. He also explained how navigating to the webpage after checking the spelling and looking out for a https at the beginning of the URL, could help identify such swindles.
Further, CZ explained the need to keep one’s private keys and passwords private. Crypto traders could survive such vulnerabilities by avoiding sharing personal information via email.
Bitcoin, altcoins, stablecoins FAQs
Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, a virtual currency designed to serve as money. This form of payment cannot be controlled by any one person, group, or entity, which eliminates the need for third-party participation during financial transactions.
Altcoins are any cryptocurrency apart from Bitcoin, but some also regard Ethereum as a non-altcoin because it is from these two cryptocurrencies that forking happens. If this is true, then Litecoin is the first altcoin, forked from the Bitcoin protocol and, therefore, an “improved” version of it.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to have a stable price, with their value backed by a reserve of the asset it represents. To achieve this, the value of any one stablecoin is pegged to a commodity or financial instrument, such as the US Dollar (USD), with its supply regulated by an algorithm or demand. The main goal of stablecoins is to provide an on/off-ramp for investors willing to trade and invest in cryptocurrencies. Stablecoins also allow investors to store value since cryptocurrencies, in general, are subject to volatility.
Bitcoin dominance is the ratio of Bitcoin’s market capitalization to the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies combined. It provides a clear picture of Bitcoin’s interest among investors. A high BTC dominance typically happens before and during a bull run, in which investors resort to investing in relatively stable and high market capitalization cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. A drop in BTC dominance usually means that investors are moving their capital and/or profits to altcoins in a quest for higher returns, which usually triggers an explosion of altcoin rallies.
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