Ethereum

Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, has recently regained control of his T-Mobile account and confirmed that a SIM-swap attack led to the recent hack of his X account. 
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 Vitalik Buterin confirms how his X account was accessed by hackers
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Buterin revealed details of the incident on the <a href="https://crypto.ro/en/dictionary/decentralized-social-media/">decentralized social media network</a>, Farcaster, on September 12. He explained how the hacker managed to gain control over his mobile number through a SIM-swap attack—an increasingly common cybercrime technique. 
The hacker subsequently gained access to his X account, exploiting the fact that a phone number can reset a Twitter password even if it’s not used for <a href="https://crypto.ro/en/dictionary/2fa-two-factor-authentication/">two-factor authentication (2FA)</a>. 
<a href="https://crypto.ro/en/news/vitalik-buterin-ethereum-co-founder-transfers-1million-in-eth-to-coinbase/">The Ethereum co-founder</a> shared his experience and lessons learned from the incident. He highlighted the vulnerability associated with linking a phone number to a X account and advised users to remove their phone numbers from their X accounts completely. 
The incident, which transpired on September 9, saw the scammers taking control of Buterin’s account to post a fraudulent NFT giveaway that lured users into clicking a malicious link. This scheme led to a collective loss of over $691,000 for the victims who fell for the scam. 
This is not an isolated incident involving T-Mobile in SIM-swap attacks. The telecom giant faced legal actions in 2020 and 2021 for allegedly facilitating the theft of millions in cryptocurrency through similar attacks.

SIM-swap attack confirmed as cause of Vitalik Buterin’s X account hack

crypto.ro global

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