Near Protocol Twitter Hack Publicity Stunt
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Near Protocol came up with a very clever marketing strategy of changing their Twitter cover photo and profile photo to all black, and releasing cryptic messages to their community. Multiple sources came to the belief that the Twitter account had been hacked, althrough there is no basis to support that the account was ever hacked, and the Near Protocol posted a message with similar text.
This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]
About Near Protocol
"ALERT It seems that @NEARProtocol's X account has been compromised!"
"The official Twitter account of the public chain project NEAR Protocol appears to have been compromised. Currently, its profile picture on Twitter has been changed to a solid black image, and its bio has been updated to display the word "Dark" with garbled characters. Around 4 AM, several strange tweets with garbled characters were posted, including "re claim your sovereig nty," "darkness," "take back your," and "The sun rises in the east." As of now, NEAR has not provided any explanation on its other official social media channels."
This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.
The background of the exchange platform, service, or individuals involved, as it would have been seen or understood at the time of the events.
Include:
- Known history of when and how the service was started.
- What problems does the company or service claim to solve?
- What marketing materials were used by the firm or business?
- Audits performed, and excerpts that may have been included.
- Business registration documents shown (fake or legitimate).
- How were people recruited to participate?
- Public warnings and announcements prior to the event.
Don't Include:
- Any wording which directly states or implies that the business is/was illegitimate, or that a vulnerability existed.
- Anything that wasn't reasonably knowable at the time of the event.
There could be more than one section here. If the same platform is involved with multiple incidents, then it can be linked to a main article page.
The Reality
This sections is included if a case involved deception or information that was unknown at the time. Examples include:
- When the service was actually started (if different than the "official story").
- Who actually ran a service and their own personal history.
- How the service was structured behind the scenes. (For example, there was no "trading bot".)
- Details of what audits reported and how vulnerabilities were missed during auditing.
What Happened
The specific events of the loss and how it came about. What actually happened to cause the loss and some of the events leading up to it.
| Date | Event | Description |
|---|---|---|
| May 8th, 2024 12:21:00 PM MDT | Morse Code Message | A Morse code message states that "darkness is coming". |
| May 8th, 2024 11:29:55 PM MDT | PANewsLab Article | PANewsLab publishes an article reporting on the hack including multiple tweets which were posted from the Near Protocol account. At this time, they also reported that no explanation had been provided by any of Near Protocol's other social media accounts. |
| May 9th, 2024 1:19:00 AM MDT | Cyvers Alert Tweet | Cyvers Alert posts a tweet warning about the account being compromised. |
| May 10th, 2024 1:51:00 AM MDT | User Enquiry | Another Twitter user CryptoSammy19 enquires about the profile having been hacked. There is no response from the Near Protocol team. |
| May 10th, 2024 9:18:00 AM MDT | Same Reclaim Official Post | The Near Protocol team posts the same message to "reclaim your sovereignty" as a message, which remains online. It's unclear if this is related to the previous account update or not. |
| May 10th, 2024 9:50:00 AM MDT | Comment About Potential Hack | The user IceBearResearch says "Bruh delete the logo, the name, then change to weird font. What's wrong with this account lol. Not seem to be hacked", which confirms that the account details were changed, and speculates it's not related to a hack. |
| May 10th, 2024 2:07:00 PM MDT | Not Hacked Tweet | A tweet shows that Twitter was not hacked and it was a marketing scheme. |
| May 10th, 2024 4:42:00 PM MDT | Marketing Praise | The user Adviant Jayant praises the marketing by NEAR Protocol. |
Technical Details
This section includes specific detailed technical analysis of any security breaches which happened. What specific software vulnerabilities contributed to the problem and how were they exploited?
Total Amount Lost
No funds were lost.
How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?
Immediate Reactions
How did the various parties involved (firm, platform, management, and/or affected individual(s)) deal with the events? Were services shut down? Were announcements made? Were groups formed?
Ultimate Outcome
What was the end result? Was any investigation done? Were any individuals prosecuted? Was there a lawsuit? Was any tracing done?
Total Amount Recovered
There do not appear to have been any funds recovered in this case.
What funds were recovered? What funds were reimbursed for those affected users?
Ongoing Developments
What parts of this case are still remaining to be concluded?
Individual Prevention Policies
No specific policies for individual prevention have yet been identified in this case.
For the full list of how to protect your funds as an individual, check our Prevention Policies for Individuals guide.
Platform Prevention Policies
Policies for platforms to take to prevent this situation have not yet been selected in this case.
For the full list of how to protect your funds as a financial service, check our Prevention Policies for Platforms guide.
Regulatory Prevention Policies
No specific regulatory policies have yet been identified in this case.
For the full list of regulatory policies that can prevent loss, check our Prevention Policies for Regulators guide.
References
- ↑ SlowMist Hacked - SlowMist Zone (May 30, 2024)
- ↑ NEAR官方X账号疑似被黑，发布带有乱码字符的奇怪推文 - PANews (May 31, 2024)
- ↑ @NEARProtocol Twitter (May 31, 2024)
- ↑ @CryptoSammy19 Twitter (May 31, 2024)
- ↑ @CyversAlerts Twitter (May 31, 2024)
- ↑ @advaitjayant Twitter (May 31, 2024)
- ↑ @nearprotocol Twitter (May 31, 2024)
- ↑ @IceBearResearch Twitter (May 31, 2024)
- ↑ @NEARProtocol Twitter (May 31, 2024)
- ↑ @kvikash007 Twitter (May 31, 2024)
- ↑ Self-Sovereignty Is NEAR: A Vision for Our Ecosystem – NEAR Protocol (May 31, 2024)