Polygon Recovers Discord Server After $145K Hack
Polygon’s Discord server has been restored following a three-hour hijacking by hackers who targeted the project’s community channel. Mudit Gupta, the Chief Information Security Officer at Polygon, confirmed that scammers impersonating support agents and sharing malicious links were involved in the incident.
Polygon Community Members Detect Unusual Activities
Polygon members on Discord were first alerted when they saw strange activities on the channel. Hackers filled the support channel with scam links, pretending to be an agent who could help the unsuspecting people.
One of the active Discord participants has already called the X social media site (formerly Twitter) immediately to alert the others that something was going on, the suspicious links having been obtained from the announcement channel. That participant also provided further information on how the hackers targeted the support channel.
Regrettably, a portion of the user group did not avoid being injured. A user with the nickname “ValidatorK” revealed that he lost $150,000 in Ether (ETH) after a transaction that looked like a legitimate announcement from the Polygon team.
Security Concerns Amidst Network Upgrade Preparations
The breach has raised concerns about Polygon’s security protocols, despite assurances from Gupta that two-factor authentication (2FA) was enabled for all privileged accounts. The hacking occurred at a crucial time for Polygon as the network is preparing for a major upgrade, among others that include its switch to a new token, POL, set to be launched on September 4.
Massively exploited the Discord apps, hence, the cryptocurrency community has suffered more because the app is mainly used for communication purposes. These channels, where critical information and asset management tools are often available, have become the favorites of cybercriminals. Just a few months ago we had similar issues with yet other crypto platforms as well.
Rise in Discord Hacks: A Growing Threat
The Polygon Discord hack happens to not be a single incident. Hackers seized control of the Discord server of Arbitrum on March 25 and placed the phishing link in the mainstream channel. Similarly, on May 5, the Discord server of Gnus.AI was infiltrated and, as a result, the company lost approximately $1.27 million.
These incidences brought to light an alarming trend in the crypto community, where the Discord servers have become the “cybercriminal hubs” with the users’ assets and trust being the targeted goods.
Illicit Crypto Transactions Drop Despite Increased Hacks
A recent case study by Chainalysis has demonstrated that the extent of illegal cryptocurrency transactions in 2024 is diminishing. Nonetheless, the rise in certain forms of criminal activities, especially hacking and ransomware, has been remarkable.
The report that was issued on the 15th of August as one of the mid-year crypto crime update, discovered that the final value of stolen cryptocurrencies was $1.58 billion by the end of the month, which is an 84% hike compared to the same period of last year. While the number of hacking incidents rose by a meager 2.8% year-over-year, the average amount stolen per hack rose up exponentially.
Only in July, hackers managed to steal approximately $266 million via 16 incidents, thus making the crypto sector to bear a considerable amount of loss. The most established attack took its toll on the Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX on July 18th, when the amount of over $230 million was taken, which corresponds to 86.4% of the total losses during the month.
