Reminder: The world of cryptocurrencies is a lucrative target for hackers and scams. Remaining ever vigilant to protect sensitive information should always be a major concern.
A recent MailChimp data breach leaked hundreds of email accounts associated with Decentraland’s newsletter. It seems the attack wasn’t directed at Decentraland but was part of a larger intrusion where malicious hackers used an internal hook to gain access to compromised accounts.
Decentraland released a blog post today addressing the leak and reminding users to stay alert as hackers may send emails impersonating official Decentraland accounts or the Decentraland Foundation.
As a reminder, never download anything directly from an email, and verify that the URL the email is coming from is from Decentraland’s official website, “decentraland.org.” Make sure the name “decentraland” is spelled correctly and that it ends in a “.org”
What Happened?
According to a statement given to TechCrunch by MailChimp CISO Siobhan Smyth, the company became aware of the intrusion on March 26th after it identified a malicious actor accessing a tool used by the company’s customer support team. What followed was a series of Social Engineering techniques to gain private information regarding several accounts.
According to the TechCrunch report, over 300 MailChimp accounts have been compromised. It seems the hackers targeted accounts specifically related to the cryptocurrency and finance sectors.
One other company that has been affected by the hack is Trezor, one of the most popular cryptocurrency hardware wallets.
Always Be Aware of Phishing Emails!
The recent hack comes amid a $625 million hack of Axie Infinity’s Ronin network, where hackers could exploit the blockchain and gain access to a significant amount of Ethereum. The Axie Infinity hack originally happened on March 23rd, but the team was only informed of it a week later.
This isn’t the first, or the last time we will see cryptocurrency-related hacks and exploits. During this bear market, it’s essential to exercise caution when it comes to protecting your digital assets as hackers are on the prowl. You should stay vigilant of suspicious emails or offers that seem too good to be true.
What Is Decentraland (MANA)?
Launched in February 2020, Decentraland is the highest-valued Metaverse crypto coin on the market, currently boasting a $4.8 billion valuation with a 24-hour trading volume of over $420 million.
Decentraland is one of the first Metaverse cryptocurrencies featuring an in-browser 3D free-to-play play-to-earn experience. It also features one of the most lucrative virtual real estate markets available on OpenSea. At writing, Decentraland’s LAND NFT collection has a total trading volume of over 230k ETH (over $800 million).
In addition, Decentraland features the most popular Metaverse casino on the market called Decentral Games’ ICE Poker. This Metaverse casino is dubbed the “Metaverse killer app” as it managed to secure over $7.5 million in revenue for Q1 2022.
The main utility asset for Decentraland is MANA, an ERC-20 digital asset built on the Ethereum blockchain. MANA is also Polygon compatible, enabling users to trade MANA on decentralized exchanges for much lower fees.
