Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection was hacked yesterday, with at least $13M in value stolen. The attack was initiated on Instagram when Hackers uploaded a fake advertisement to the BAYC account. When users clicked a link contained in the ad, they unknowingly gave hackers access to their digital wallets. Yikes.
At a pedestrian level, the hackers will just cash in and move on, right? Not so fast — at least according to one industry expert. Cooper Kunz, CTO at Calaxy, an open-social marketplace driving creator NFTs and interactive creator-fan experiences to the forefront of Web3, described the hack as “political.”
Cooper Kunz commented:
“In light of the recent Bored Ape Yacht Club hack, it is imperative that holders of digital assets understand how to assure NFT security. Users should never trust one-off promotional activities and always connect directly with known websites by typing their URL into the browser. These actions alone will drastically reduce the chances of falling victim to a phishing or withdrawal attack. Now that this hack has already taken place, it will be interesting to see the course of direction from Yuga Labs – will it replace the lost NFTs with its sizable treasury?
I am interested in the hackers’ motivations as, due to the defining characteristics of NFTs, there is no effective way for them or their proceeds to be ‘laundered’. For a hacker in possession of an NFT now blacklisted from OpenSea, their intention could not be financial. Instead, the attack may resonate with a political message. It appears that a reputation of naivety is being built around the Bored Ape community. The impression is that they are not knowledgeable or well-equipped, and are being trolled as such – this is a narrative that should be tackled internally before it is solidified.”
