At a glance.
- Gemini data leak exposes users to phishing scams.
- TPG joins growing list of Australian data breach victims.
- Twitter bans ElonJet account.
Gemini data leak exposes users to phishing scams.
Cointelegraph reports that the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange appears to have been impacted by a data breach targeting a third-party vendor that allowed threat actors to gain access to over 5.7 million lines of information containing Gemini customers’ email addresses and partial phone numbers. (Some info was repeated in the records, so the number of impacted individuals is lower than it might at first seem.) Though the exchange went offline briefly when the incident was discovered, the exchange is now fully functional. Gemini released a statement confirming, “Some Gemini customers have recently been the target of phishing campaigns that we believe are the result of an incident at a third-party vendor. This incident led to the collection of Gemini customer email addresses and partial phone numbers. No Gemini account information or systems were impacted as a result of this third-party incident, and all funds and customer accounts remain secure." However, Cointelegraph notes, users are alleging that the leak occurred far earlier than Gemini has indicated. Gemini customers began posting about issues on the exchange weeks ago, stating that they were receiving targeted phishing emails to addresses linked only to their Gemini accounts. One user who goes by the Reddit handle u/Exit_127 claimed they received a phishing email from a MetaMask imposter regarding the need to “sync my wallet due to the merge.”
TPG joins growing list of Australian data breach victims.
Australian internet services provider TPG Telecom announced yesterday that it had experienced a cyberattack exposing the emails of up to 15,000 of its corporate customers. TPG is the latest victim in a wave of recent attacks on high-profile Australian firms including wireless carrier Optus and insurance provider Medibank. Australia's second largest internet service provider, TPG says the hackers infiltrated their hosted exchange service in order to access customers' cryptocurrency and financial information. CRN notes that the breach was discovered by cybersecurity adviser Mandiant during a forensic historical review. TPG says it has implemented security measures to put an end to the unauthorized access and will be notifying all customers impacted by the incident. Azeem Sherrif, a market analyst at CMC Markets, says the attack "does show to the world and to Australia that it is still quite easy for hackers to access customer records, which is obviously a huge negative and a lot of the other companies should definitely be wary.”
Twitter bans ElonJet account.
CNN reports Elon Musk has permanently suspended a Twitter account that tracked the location of his private jet, despite stating last month that he would leave the account up. As CNN explains, the @ElonJet account, which was run by 20-year-old Florida college student Jack Sweeney, used publicly available flight tracking information to tweet every time Musk’s jet arrived at or departed from an airport. Sweeney says Musk sent him a private message last year asking, “Can you take this down? It is a security risk.” When Sweeney refused, Musk offered him $5,000 to delete the account, which Sweeney countered with an ask of $50,000. Musk declined, but now that the ultra-wealthy magnate is in charge of the platform, he clearly took matters into his own hands. The removal of the account was accompanied by a new set of Twitter rules prohibiting real-time location sharing. Musk stated, "Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info. Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok."