Polychain Capital CEO account hacked, promoting fake airdrops
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Polychain Capital, a company specializing in cryptocurrency investments, has confirmed that its founder and CEO Olaf Carlson-Wee’s X account was hacked.
The vulnerability was discovered on January 4, when Carlson-Wee’s account began promoting a fake airdrop of Polychain’s native token PCHAIN. The hackers claimed the airdrop was part of Polychain’s New Year celebrations, and the post contained links to phishing websites.
However, shortly after Polychain discovered the vulnerability, it issued a statement acknowledging the hack and warning users not to interact with Carlson-Wee’s X account until further notice.
The account, which reportedly has more than 19,000 followers, has been retrieved and the offending posts removed, but more than 40,000 users have still viewed the account. It’s unclear how many people may have interacted with the post or lost assets as a result.
The Carlson-Wee incident is the latest in a series of hacks and scams targeting the crypto community. In December 2023, users of the Orbit Chain cross-chain bridge suffered heavy losses due to hacker attacks, and the total losses caused by such incidents that month reached nearly $100 million.
Orbit Bridge attackers launched the attack on December 31 at 8:52 pm UTC and stole multiple cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum (ETH), USD Coin (USDC), Tether (USDT), and Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC).
In response, the Orbit Chain team announced efforts to freeze the stolen assets and work with international cryptocurrency exchanges and law enforcement agencies to recover them.
Phishing scams continue unabated
Phishing scams have been a scourge for the cryptocurrency industry, with several reports highlighting their prevalence in 2023.According to data from the blockchain security platform Scam snifferIn 2023, cryptocurrency phishing scams affected more than 324,000 people and caused nearly $300 million in losses.
other Report According to SlowMist, a total of 464 security incidents resulted in losses of nearly $2.5 billion in the same year. This is a 34.2% decrease compared to 2022, which saw more than 300 accidents and $3.8 billion in losses.
The report shows that last year, the decentralized finance (defi) industry was the most targeted, with more than 280 security incidents, accounting for 60.7% of all incidents that year, causing losses of $773 million. Interestingly, this The figure is as high as 62.7% decreasing from 2022.
It is worth noting that the SlowMist report states that Ethereum suffered the highest losses due to scams, pulls, and breaches, totaling $487 million. Polygon also fell victim to scams and hackers, losing $123 million.
Other blockchain security companies such as PeckShield, Certificationand beoxin It also released its own report estimating total cryptocurrency losses due to scams, breaches, and exploits to be between $1.51 billion and $2 billion in 2023, with North Korea-linked hackers Lazarus Group accounting for 17% of that total.
