By
Kseniia Klichova
May 17th, 2024
Despite the spread of news about NEAR’s X account getting hijacked, the blockchain protocol is yet to confirm or refute the information.
NEAR Protocol, a decentralized application platform focused on creating fast and scalable infrastructure, had its X account hacked. This security breach, which occurred yesterday, has left followers of the blockchain platform puzzled because of the unusual texts and activities that followed.
The blockchain platform’s X account has about 1.9 million followers, and the hacker has used this opportunity to post several encrypted tweets. The first message, a 27-second Morse code message that said “Darkness is coming” was posted around 6:18 pm UTC, not long after NEAR announced that its Fast Finality Layer is now live on testnet.
— N̷̢̒E̶̳̎Ą̷͌R̴̳͝ (@NEARProtocol) May 8, 2024
A few hours after the cryptic video was posted, a series of messages popped up on NEAR’s X account in a difficult-to-read Zalgo font, the messages of which were later translated to mean “the sun rises in the east”, “take back your thoughts”, “darkness”, and “reclaim your sovereignty”. Aside from the post, the account name and description were changed using the exact text. The hacker also made the profile and background pictures black.
Despite the spread of news about NEAR’s X account getting hijacked, the blockchain protocol is yet to confirm or refute the information. Amid the confusion among community members, the company’s Head of Marketing, Yadira Blocker, wrote on her page, ‘Something is cooking’.
A Growing Trend of Crypto Account Hacks
This is not the first time a similar scenario has occurred; earlier this year, CoinGecko, a crypto data aggregator, X account was compromised and used to run a phishing scam. However, the company was fast enough to regain control of the account and get the post deleted before members of its community fell victim to the dubious act.
Also, just last month, popular actor Tom Holland, known for his role as Spiderman in the same movie, had his X account hacked and used to promote fake SPIDER cryptocurrency tokens and Spiderverse NFTs. A link to a fake website was attached to the post, urging users to get early access to the sham cryptocurrency and NFTs.
Similarly, on March 19, the X account of Trezor was compromised, the message which ZachXBT, an on-chain detective, revealed that the illicit act was carried out by the perpetrators using the account to promote a fake presale of a token called $TRZR on the Solana Network. The hacker also mentioned SLERF, another memecoin, stating that Trezor is willing to support the token, to persuade the community members to fall into its trap. Although Trezor was able to act fast, it could still not stop the hacker from withdrawing $8,100 from Trezor’s Zapper account.
The security breach in the crypto ecosystem is a big issue that needs to be dealt with urgently. Perpetrators are using digital currency to lure people into their traps. In the case of the NEAR Protocol, community members are still anticipating official news from the blockchain on what happened and the next course of action.