The X account (formerly Twitter) of blockchain security company CertiK has been compromised with bad actors posting a phishing link to a wallet drainer.

On Jan 5, it was revealed that CertiK’s X account was a victim of a phishing attack with several calls from the wider community to avoid engaging the links posted during the incident.

Blockchain security firm, Wallet Guard flagged the incident noting that the hackers are posting fake masked Revoke Cash links to a wallet drainer with other users adding that engaging with the links could lead to asset losses.

The hackers accessed the X account and posted a Uniswaps router contract with warnings of a re-entrancy exploit asking users to utilize Revoke Cash to “revoke” previous approvals.

“WARNING: Our team has found the Uniswaps router contract to be vulnerable to a re-entrancy exploit, allowing attackers to move anyone’s tokens if approved to the Uniswap’s contact. Use @Revoke Cash in order to revoke any vulnerable approvals.” 

Users across social media spaces have criticized the incident based on the fact that a blockchain security firm’s account was compromised and a phishing link shared.

However, in exact times, there have been massive phishing links scams, even involving Ethereum’s co-founder’s account in October 2023. Last year, Vitalik Buterin’s X account was compromised with bad actors using the account to share fake non-fungible token links which led to over $691,000 being stolen.

“Disregard this post, apparently Vitalik has been hacked. He is working on restoring access,” his father wrote in a tweet.

This is not the first time CertiK has been the victim of a social platform compromise as hackers continue to target popular accounts to post phishing links. In December, CertiK’s website posted a  Discord link with phishing links belonging to a fake server.

On Jan 4, it was reported that the CEO of Polychain’s X account was hacked in a phishing scam with the team warning users not to engage. At press time, the phishing links have been deleted from the account but it reaches over 41,000 users.

“In celebration of the New Year, They have decided to start the $PCHAIN phase 1 distribution early! What are you waiting for? Get your share before it’s too late! Register below to participate.”

CertiK recently released a new report on cryptocurrency hacks highlighting a drop in 2023 but revealed that over $1.8 billion was lost from 751 security breaches.

According to the release, Q3 2023 witnessed the most losses resulting in over $686 million stolen from 183 incidents followed by November. While the number of scams plunged, the crypto community is still worried about the number of phishing incidents recorded in the past months calling on both users and platforms to be more vigilant.

Blockchain security firm, Scam Sniffer reported that over 295 million was stolen from 320,000 users in the last 12 months.

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Meet Ju Ki-young, a South Korean tech entrepreneur who co-founded the blockchain analysis firm CryptoQuant.

About Ju: Born in 1992, Ju, an alumnus of Pohang University of Science and Technology, co-founded CryptoQuant with fellow alumni in April 2019. Before becoming its CEO and entering the blockchain sphere, he was a software engineer who offered analyses for businesses.

What CryptoQuant does: CryptoQuant, which South Korea's Chosun Daily dubs as the "Bloomberg of Crypto," provides on-chain and market data gathered from blockchain and major cryptocurrency exchange platforms. The company keeps track of every transaction that occurs in the market.

Making a name: Using on-chain data analysis, CryptoQuant says it was the first to notice the impending crash of the Terra-Luna cryptocurrency in May 2022 and the potential bankruptcy of FTX months after.

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Ju raised the red flag in an X post, pointing out how Terraform Labs' nonprofit, Luna Foundation Guard, transferred around 37,000 Bitcoins (approximately $1.59 billion in today's exchange) to Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange. A few days after making the post, Terraform Labs' Luna, the sister token of stablecoin TerraUSD, crashed to virtually $0.

With its success, CryptoQuant signed a partnership deal with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group), the world’s largest derivatives and options exchange, as the latter’s on-chain data provider in July of the same year.

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Helping solve crimes: Ju hopes that CryptoQuant could also aid governments and financial authorities in tracking cyber financial crimes. In 2019, the company used its expertise to uncover the e-wallets of those involved in the “Nth Room” scandal, leading to the arrest of masterminds Cho Ju-bin, Moon Hyung-wook and others.

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The UN refugee agency is working on decentralized digital ID utilizing blockchain to protect the identity of people crossing borders is risky situations.

UNHCR Division of Financial and Administrative Management Treasurer Carmen Hett said during a panel discussion at Decentral House in Switzerland at the close of 2023. The panel also included representatives of the World Trade Organization and International Telecommunication Union, and focussed largely on how to build support and acceptance for the use of blockchain within agencies that are operationally conservative.

There are 114 million displaced people around the world, according to Hett, and the UNHCR’s challenge is to deliver the assistance they need and support their financial inclusion, based on accurate information. Aid is deposited in refugees’ digital wallets to deliver them some degree of control over how the funds are spent.

Hett admits some skepticism among UNHCR staff about the use of blockchain, but says with the first use case delivered successfully, the project is now scaling up.

The use of blockchain for aid payments means that UNHCR can provide aid “within literally minutes,” Hett says, and does so “at zero cost.” This promise allowed her to challenge skeptics within her organization to come up with a reason why blockchain could not be used.

Delivering aid in the form of USDC stablecoins deposited in a digital wallet also builds the digital and financial literacy of refugees, Hett argues.

That is the model used to deliver aid directly to people fleeing the Russia’s war against Ukraine, using biometrics to verify the identity of recipients. The project won the “Best Impact Project Award” at Paris Blockchain Week 2023.

The UNHCR’s next use cases for blockchain is fundraising through a staking pool and the production of NFTs to raise awareness of the agency’s work.

Digital identity not only goes along with the digital wallet, but also carries particular risk for refugees. For this reason, Hett says, UNHCR is considering how to use zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) to protect refugee’s data.

For the benefits of technical tools like ZKP to be realized, however, more regulatory work is needed, Hett says.

blockchain  |  decentralized ID  |  digital identity  |  refugee registration  |  UNHCR  |  Zero Knowledge