IOTA hack: $4 mln stolen
An unknown hacker group has successfully managed to steal 4 million dollars from the holders of IOTA, most security and cryptocurrency-related websites report. Online code generators for new wallets, supposedly making completely random codes, turned out to be the tools of hackers. These codes are also called seeds.
Some observers blame IOTA’s mismanagement of public relations, as people note, the team failed to warn that using third-party sites is completely unsafe - especially when it comes to finance.
Postscript: can you tell the difference between helloiota dot com and iotaseed dot io? Which is legit? Which is not? (Some users report that their antivirus blocks helloiota – the recommended seed gen on the r/iota sidebar)
— Nic Carter (@nic__carter) 21 января 2018 г.
This indeed could have been prevented if the company decided to place scam warnings in their social media and, possibly, educational e-mail newsletters on the topic. Steam, a platform which some may consider much less serious business (a video game shop), for example, always warns in the community chat form about people who pose as admins (“Never give your password to anyone”) and reminds to be vigilant about 3rd-party websites, while not forgetting to add that these sites are not connected with Valve Corporation.
IOTA is a cryptocurrency which does not impress Ethereum fans, as witnessed by an argument described by Bitnewstoday at the end of this year. The main concerns of the rivals are the technology that underlies IOTA and they think is underdeveloped, and alleged inexperience of the companies deciding to partner with the team of this altcoin.