On 11th January, the official X account of Litecoin was compromised, and the hacker began promoting a fake token. The attack involved creating a false narrative that Litecoin had deployed a token on Solana and publishing an actual fake address for the future attack and a link similar to the Litecoin official website.
That, however, was seized by the Litecoin team, and they counter the breach arising from a compromised delegated account.
Details of the attack
The hacker’s post misled followers into believing that Litecoin had moved to Solana with the message: “LTC is now in Solana.” It shared a contract address and a link to a website hosting the fake token in a simple blog post. The abuse of bad grammar in the post increased the users’ suspicion among some of them, though the remaining ones fell victim before the team managed it.
As stated by the Litecoin administration, the hacking attempt was exploited using funds from a delegated account linked with the given platform. Surprisingly, the account was hacked, but all the changes made were deleted, leaving full control in the hands of Litecoin.
Social media hacks in Crypto are rising
This is a growing trend in hacking social media accounts that deal with cryptocurrency or individuals involved in the business. These web platforms are often abusive in spreading fake tokens and other phishing scams intended to steal money and personal information. Such a thing has recently happened to Litecoin, so it is necessary to expand the security level of such currencies.
Andy Ayrey, the founder of Truth Terminal, which also suffered a defacement attack in October, became the latest victim of cyber pirates. Hackers pushed for a fake token named “IB,” which allegedly made $600M in profits. At the same time, EigenLayer’s X account was compromised and filled with the pump-and-dump advertisement of the so-called ‘Stakedrop’ of its native token.
High-profile individuals like rapper Wiz Khalifa, to name but a few, are not exempt. In November, his X account was advertising a fake memecoin, known as “WIZ,” to his fans and investors.
Cardano Foundation and Animoca brands also targeted
Large organizations have not been spared in the recent past months. On 08-12, the Cardano Foundation’s X account was breached. The attackers published fake news regarding a court case between the attackers and the SEC and a bogus token labeled “ADAsol.” The scam saw approximately $5000,000 in trading volume before the exposure of the fake token, and the value plummeted by over 99%.
Later in December, Yat Siu, the co-founder of Animoca Brands, reported that his X account was hacked. The hacker used it to add a fake memecoin under Animoca Brands’ name to defraud people with no objective relation to the Web3 firm.
Such incidents insist on the potential increase of hackers as a menace to the cryptocurrency market, with a focus on social media. It is highly recommended that both platforms and users implement the highest levels of protection against hackers.