https://cointelegraph.com/news/vitalik-buterin-reveals-x-account-hack-was-caused-by-sim-swap-attack

 
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Martin Young
19 hours ago

Vitalik Buterin reveals X account hack was caused by SIM-swap attack

The Ethereum co-founder has regained control of his T-Mobile account,
confirming that a SIM-swap attack resulted in the hack of his X
account.

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Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has confirmed that the recent
hack of his X (Twitter) account was the result of a SIM-swap attack.

Speaking on the decentralized social media network Farcaster on Sept.
12, Buterin said that he has finally recovered his T-Mobile account
after the hacker managed to gain control of it via a SIM swap attack.

    "Yes, it was a SIM swap, meaning that someone socially-engineered
    T-mobile itself to take over my phone number."

The Ethereum co-founder added some lessons and learnings from his
experience with X.

[9e52f433-f]Vitalik Buterin confirms how his X account was accessed
by hackers. Source: Warpcast

"A phone number is sufficient to password reset a Twitter account
even if not used as 2FA," he said, adding that users can "completely
remove [a] phone from Twitter."

    "I had seen the 'phone numbers are insecure, don't authenticate
    with them' advice before, but did not realize this."

On Sept. 9, Buterin's X account was  taken over by scammers who
posted a fake NFT giveaway prompting users to click a malicious link,
which resulted in victims collectively losing over $691,000.

On Sept. 10, Ethereum developer Tim Beiko strongly recommended
removing phone numbers from X accounts and having 2FA enabled. "Seems
like a no-brainer to have this default on, or to default turn it on
when an account reaches, say, >10k followers," he said to platform
owner Elon Musk.

    Twitter opsec PSA:

    If you have a phone number linked on your account, even with
    other 2FA, it can be used to reset your PW. Need to specifically
    disable it + remove phone #.

    If your Twitter account pre-dates crypto, strongly recommend
    double-checking, and adding strong 2FA! pic.twitter.com/
    uXrvHYhQvJ

    -- timbeiko.eth [?] (@TimBeiko) September 9, 2023

Related: How easy is a SIM swap attack? Here's how to prevent one

A SIM-swap or simjacking attack is a technique used by hackers to
gain control of a victim's mobile phone number. With control of the
number, scammers can use two-factor authentication (2FA) to access
social media, bank, and crypto accounts.

It is not the first time T-Mobile has been involved in this type of
attack vector. In 2020, the telecoms giant was sued for allegedly
enabling the theft of $8.7 million worth of crypto in a series of
SIM-swap attacks.

T-Mobile was also sued again in February 2021 when a customer lost
$450,000 in Bitcoin in another SIM-swap attack.

Article updated to include additional comments from Tim Beiko.

Magazine: How to protect your crypto in a volatile market: Bitcoin
OGs and experts weigh in

  * #Twitter
  * #Business
  * #Vitalik Buterin
  * #SIM Card
  * #Scams
  * #Hacks

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