Friend.tech suffers loss of $385,000 after SIM swap attack

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Friend.tech suffers loss of $385,000 after SIM swap attack

The decentralized social network Friend.tech was again the victim of a wave of SIM swap attacks, resulting in a loss of $385,000 in Ethereum for four users.

The same hacker, ZachXBT, drained the account of the four victims in less than 24 hours, hacking the accounts of the four attackers.

SIM swapping is a method where hackers trick mobile carriers into transferring a user's phone number to their SIM card. With the number, they can then access online accounts linked to that number.

In real-time, KingMgugga reported that he had been hacked. Is my phone getting f***ed up and I'm watching it happen? ! '' he wrote.

Previously this week, four other Friend.tech users claimed to have their accounts drained because of a SIM swap, totaling around 109 ETH stolen.

When Decrypt reached out, Friend.tech didn't immediately respond.

'S $20M at risk from SIM swaps, the company said in a statement.

SIM swap attacks, especially in crypto, are on the rise.

In August, data from FTX, BlockFi, and Genesis were exposed in attacks aimed at Kroll, the vendor responsible for overseeing creditor claims for the insolvent businesses.

The SIM Swap attack hit one of their employees' phones, Kroll said.

Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum's co-founder, was also targeted in September by a SIM swap attack. Warpcast, a decentralized social network, reported on Monday that hackers manipulated Twitter to reset his password, granting them access to his account and its 4.9 million followers.

Symptoms of a SIM swap usually appear within 24 hours, with victims not receiving calls or texts or unable to access online accounts.

A precautionary precaution is to use authentication apps like Google Authenticator instead of SMS-based two-factor authentication.