Polygon faced a security breach today when hackers gained control of its community Discord channel for about three hours. The breach allowed scammers to infiltrate the channel and target users with malicious links and misleading information. However, Mudit Gupta, Polygon’s Chief Information Security Officer, confirmed that the team has regained control of the Discord server and is undoing the changes made by the hacker.
The hack was first detected by Polygon users who noticed suspicious activities on the Discord channel. Scammers posing as support agents flooded the support channel with deceptive messages, prompting one community member to raise the alarm on social media platform X. The user warned others about scam links in the announcements channel and highlighted the misleading tactics used by the scammers. Unfortunately, the user received a timeout from the channel moderators for his efforts to alert the community.
In a more serious incident, a user named “ValidatorK” reported losing $150,000 worth of Ether (ETH) after interacting with what seemed to be an official announcement on the channel. This incident raised concerns about Polygon’s security measures, despite claims from Gupta that all privileged accounts on the server had two-factor authentication (2FA) enabled.
The timing of the breach was particularly worrisome for Polygon as it occurred during the platform’s network upgrade, where it is set to replace its native token MATIC with the new POL token on September 4.
Discord channel hacks have become a growing trend among hackers due to the platform’s popularity within the crypto community. These channels are often used to share valuable information and manage assets, making them attractive targets for cybercriminals. The hack of Polygon’s Discord channel is just the latest in a series of similar attacks on other platforms, such as the Arbitrum Discord server and Gnus.AI, which suffered losses of around $1.27 million following breaches of their Discord servers.
It is crucial for crypto projects and communities to enhance their security measures and remain vigilant against such attacks to protect users and assets. As the crypto space continues to evolve, cybersecurity will play an increasingly vital role in safeguarding digital assets and maintaining trust within the community.
