OpenSea is currently the largest and most extensive NFT marketplace, and unfortunately, the company’s Discord server was a victim of hackers, here’s more on this shocking development
OpenSea: The Gold standard
In more ways than one, OpenSea is the gold standard and poster child of the NFT space; the company has one of the most recognizable brands in the NFT space. When we have a company that’s an anchor and an essential stakeholder in the sector, it’s expected that the company stays above water in terms of security.
The NFT space has been rife with hacks, rug pulls, and system lapses, but in all, OpenSea has managed to stay out of the news for security lapses and glitches – until now. Reports have been permeating the airwaves about the hack of OpenSea’s Discord server.
The news is fresh, but the first mentions of OpenSea’s Discord server being compromised came from tweets by individuals and Peckshield, a security firm.
A couple of hours ago, OpenSea shared a tweet on the issue, “We are currently investigating a potential vulnerability in our Discord, please do not click on any links in the Discord.”
Due to OpenSea’s size, nothing is ever a minor issue, and we can be sure that the company’s Discord server suffering a hack will have wide-reaching consequences. Over the last few months, Discord server hacks have been rampant, and this brings to question why hackers tend to favor Discord channels as their victim of choice.
What did the hackers try to promote?
The access gained by the scammers was used for advertising a scam NFT mint, and according to screenshots made public, an announcement was shared of a new mint opportunity featuring a “partnership with YouTube.”
The scammers prompted server members to click on a link leading to a website with the word YouTube in it, and expectedly, it was not YouTube’s official website. Peckshield, the earlier mentioned security firm, identified the website as a Phishing website.
Thankfully, the scam was quickly identified and neutralized, with OpenSea removing the messages and accounts from the channel, then informing the community not to click on the links shared.
OpenSea has temporarily hidden the channel from users, and the company shared that the hackers were able to steal assets worth around $27,000 from less than ten wallets. It’s not great news that people lost their assets, but looking at how big the problem could have been, it’s good news that “only” $27,000 worth of assets were lost to the hackers.
What does this mean for the NFT ecosystem?
The NFT ecosystem has had to deal with a myriad of issues ranging from governmental restrictions to hackers. Unfortunately, Discord servers have been one of the most frequent ways hackers have used to take advantage of NFT projects, collections, and marketplaces.
The time has come for NFT stakeholders to work with Discord on how to secure the platform better; they’ll also need to fix security lapses on the end of companies. If that doesn’t work, it might be time to move to a different platform.
