Hackers post racist and offensive messages to Blockfolio users

Published at: Feb. 9, 2021

Some Blockfolio users received shocking messages from the app on Tuesday in what has now been confirmed as a breach of the platform’s signal feed.

The hackers responsible for the breach sent racist and offensive messages, threatening them to withdraw their funds or risk losing their deposits.

Responding to the matter, Blockfolio released a tweet apologizing for the incident while assuring users of the safety of their funds.

According to Blockfolio, the breach only affected the signal submitter protocols and not the actual trading environment.

The platform also promised to credit all trading feature-enabled users with $10 as well as others who sign up within the week.

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried also responded to the incident via his Twitter account stating that the company will perform a security review of Blockfolio’s non-trading protocols. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, FTX acquired Blockfolio for $150 million back in August 2020. According to Bankman-Fried:

“No members of the Blockfolio team wanted this to happen. But we are all responsible for our product and will be doing what we can to fix this. I'll also be donating to the ACLU today, as will a number of other staff members.”

The Blockfolio hack is yet another example of how non-deposit resources on crypto platforms are also being targeted by malicious hackers. Crypto exchanges and hardware wallet makers have seen breaches exposing sensitive user data in recent months.

Indeed, with the Ledger data breach, some affected users even received threats of physical harm after their phone numbers and home addresses were leaked online.

Tags
Related Posts
Hacked Liquid exchange receives $120M debt funding from FTX
Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Liquid has secured $120 million in debt financing from FTX Trading after suffering a nearly $100-million hack last week. Announcing the news Thursday, Liquid Group and FTX Trading — the owner and operator of crypto exchange FTX — said that the new funds will help Liquid improve its balance sheet and contribute to the exchange’s licensing opportunities in the key jurisdictions of Japan and Singapore. The new funding also targets new capital generation, increasing liquidity, as well as improving Liquid’s customer support, the announcement notes. FTX CEO and founder Sam Bankman-Fried said that the new financing underpins …
Bitcoin / Aug. 26, 2021
FTX CEO claims competitor responsible for racist messages delivered to Blockfolio users
On February 9, Blockfolio's Signal feed was briefly compromised, resulting in some users receiving racist messages within the company's app. Users said that the culprits went so far as to threaten loss of funds if deposits were not removed from the crypto portfolio platform. While the derogatory messages were reportedly scrubbed by Blockfolio's security team within about 30 minutes, the incident left many wondering how such an attack could have occurred. Tweeting on Tuesday, SBF offered updates about the incident, alleging that a competing exchange was to blame. 1) We're really sorry about the messages today on Blockfolio. We've also …
Business / Feb. 9, 2021
Sam Bankman-Fried says he regrets filing for bankruptcy: Report
The former CEO of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried has expressed deep regret over filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week, calling it his “biggest single fuckup.” In a wide-ranging interview with VOX which was published on Nov. 16, Bankman-Fried reportedly answered questions on a number of topics such as the Nov. 11 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, his thoughts on regulators, ethics, how FTX and Alameda “gambled with customer money,” and the FTX hack. According to screenshots of the Twitter conversation between VOX reporter Kelsey Piper and Sam Bankman-Fried, the former FTX CEO said that although he has made multiple mistakes, the …
Regulation / Nov. 17, 2022
SBF reveals what was behind FTX's reopening of Bahamian withdrawals
FTX’s former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has divulged what really went on in the days before it filed for bankruptcy when the exchange selectively reopened withdrawals — only for Bahamian users. In a telephone interview with crypto blogger Tiffany Fong, dated Nov. 16, Bankman-Fried claims to have made the decision to reopen withdrawals to Bahamian citizens as he did not want himself, nor the exchange, to be in a country “with a lot of angry people in it.” “The reason I did it was it was critical to the exchange being able to have a future because that’s where I am …
Business / Nov. 30, 2022
FTX hires forensics team to find lost customers’ billions: Report
The new management for bankrupt crypto exchange FTX has reportedly hired a team of financial forensic investigators to track down the billions of dollars worth of missing customer crypto. Financial advisory company AlixPartners was chosen for the task and is led by former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chief accountant, Matt Jacques, according to a Dec. 7 report from the Wall Street Journal. It is understood that the forensics firm will be tasked with conducting “asset-tracing” to identify and recover the missing digital assets and will complement the restructing work being undertaken by FTX. On Nov. 11 hackers drained wallets …
Business / Dec. 8, 2022