Pioneer in AI-powered cloud analytics, and the largest public holder of Bitcoin, MicroStrategy’s X account was reported to have been hacked, which saw users lose Oliver $440,000.
The breach transpired on a Monday in Asia, orchestrated by an adept attacker who strategically placed and subsequently deleted a post on MicroStrategy’s X page.
Reports disclose that hackers posted a series of malicious links to a fake airdrop for a so-called Ethereum-based MSTR token.
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Users who clicked on the link were directed to a lookalike MicroStrategy webpage that directed them to connect a wallet and claim the fake MSTR airdrop. Once users accept a series of permissions in their Web3 wallet, it is understood that the attackers can automatically drain the tokens out of the user’s wallet.
According to a report from blockchain sleuth ZachXBT and anti-scam platform, Scam Sniffer, one user alone lost over $420,000 worth of altcoins, including wBAI, CHEX, and wPOKT.
Reacting to the incident, crypto industry experts have criticized the scam for its obvious nature, noting that MicroStrategy is a form that is exclusively focused on Bitcoin, and it is highly unlikely that it would launch a token on Ethereum.
MicroStrategy’s co-founder, Michael Saylor, an influential figure in the crypto space said,
“Obviously trying not to be victim-blaming here but you gotta be very special to think MicroStrategy is launching an ETH token after Saylor has spent multiple years very famously saying there is no second best and you only use one chair”.
MicroStrategy has not yet publicly commented on the hack. It is the largest independent publicly traded analytics and business intelligence company. The MicroStrategy analytics platform is consistently rated as the best in enterprise analytics and is used by many of the world’s most admired brands in the Fortune Global 500.
It pursues two corporate strategies: (1) grow our enterprise analytics software business to promote our vision of Intelligence Everywhere and (2) acquire and hold Bitcoin, which it views as a dependable store of value supported by a robust, public, open-source architecture untethered to sovereign monetary policy.
Presently, MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin holdings are estimated to be around $10 billion, a testament to the digital asset’s recent surge in value. The company recently announced a purchase of $37 million worth of BTC in its earnings call, bringing its total holdings to over $8.1 billion.
However, the company has a history of being targeted by scammers. In 2022, the company’s CEO, Michael Saylor, was impersonated on social media in an attempt to promote a fake cryptocurrency giveaway.
The recent breach raises pertinent questions about the overall security infrastructure of companies deeply entrenched in the world of cryptocurrencies.
As the adoption of digital assets continues to gain momentum, the threats posed by sophisticated hackers seeking unauthorized access and exploiting the trust of unsuspecting users have become more pronounced.
The hack on MicroStrategy’s X account serves as a stark reminder of the evolving and dynamic nature of cyber threats within the cryptocurrency space.