Cyber attackers have stolen NFTs (Non-fungible Tokens) worth $1.7 million from the 17 members of the OpenSea NFT marketplace. This news spread panic among users as they noticed that their NFTs were missing from OpenSea. Research suggests that a total of 254 tokens were stolen in this attack.
OpenSea initially announced that a total of 32 users were affected by this cyberattack. But later, it was declared that only 17 users among them were affected. The other 15 users came into contact with the attacker, but no loss was recorded. Anything that can be converted into a digital asset and traded using cryptocurrency can be classified as an NFT. It can be your drawing, photos, videos, GIFs, etc. In 2021, NFT sales increased by $25 billion due to its tremendous increase in popularity.
The NFTs generally work on blockchains as it provides owners the complete ownership of the digital asset. So, when we list our NFT on a marketplace, we have to pay a transaction fee for the usage of blockchain. With the growth in the investment in NFTs, OpenSea has become one of the leading companies in the world. In January 2022, the company was valued at $13.3 billion. It provides a user-friendly interface that is extremely easy to use. Users can list, browse, and bid on the tokens without any interaction with blockchains.
OpenSea had recently launched a new smart contract. A cyber attacker copied their launch email and re-sent it to users. The unlucky individuals who opened this email were taken to a fake website. On this website, the information of their NFTs was stolen and then migrated from the old contract to the new contract of NFTs.
The company has been struggling with various cyberattacks that were carried out to steal information from their databases. The value of the NFTs is growing exponentially as this attack cost the victims around $1.7 million with only 17 victims. It is still not clear who initiated the attack, but OpenSea has said that they are investigating the matter.
Many blockchain companies are encouraged these days to invest in third-party smart contract auditing as well as bugs bounty programs. Immense importance should be given to educating investors about the potential market risks. These methods help in the prevention of phishing, impersonation, spoofing, and other social engineering attacks. Many people still store their NFTs in online wallets, which makes it even more important for users to know all the red flags of phishing attacks.
Original Source : https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/opensea-experienced-cyberattack-nfts-lost-17-million-aariya-rathi/
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