KUALA LUMPUR – The X accounts of several government agencies and online news outlets, local and international, fell victim to an apparent hacking incident perpetrated by certain quarters in an attempt to promote a cryptocurrency token.
The hackers are understood to have targeted a number of notable X accounts from around the world in an operation which commenced around 2am today. Several Malaysian accounts were also affected.
According to screenshots circulating on the social media platform, the official X pages for the Election Commission, the Employees Provident Fund and Tourism Malaysia were infiltrated by the hackers.
Local news portal Malaysia Gazette’s X account was also hacked, with the attackers posting a message saying: “THIS IS HACKED ACCOUNT! INTRODUCING $HACKED ON SOLANA on each account we hack we publish the token address so we pump it and make profits together.”
Similar messages were also posted on other hacked accounts.
Outside of Malaysia, the attack also reportedly aimed at various other high-profile companies and individuals, including computer brand Lenovo’s India division, film director Oliver Stone and Brazilian football player Neymar Jr.
Besides media outlets such as celebrity paper People Magazine and Philippines’ ABS-CBN News, an account linked with the European Commission, as well as the Santa Cruz County’s profile were also hacked.
While the posts have since been deleted from the profiles, netizens have questioned how the hacking could have occurred, particularly for accounts belonging to government agencies.
$HACKED is said to be a new “meme coin” running on open-source blockchain platform Solana, the network behind the fifth biggest digital coin, SOL.
A meme coin refers to cryptocurrencies that are more towards attracting investors through a fun image, instead of beinf taken as seriously as leading digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
X user and cybersleuth @zachxbt said that the scammers are likely to have “lost money” purchasing the hacking method as top traders barely made US$1,000 while the market is capped at US$67,000.
The user later updated that $HACKED raked in US$8,000 off the scam and reminded netizens to amend their X settings to revoke access to unused connected applications. – September 19, 2024