Hacker Breaches Algorand CEO’s X Account to Criticise Project

On January 26, a hacker compromised the X account of Algorand Foundation CEO Staci Warden, yet refrained from posting phishing links.

‼️ @StaciW_DC’s account has been compromised.

Please do not click on any links on her account or respond to DMs.

We are in the process of recovering it.

— Algorand Foundation (@AlgoFoundation) January 26, 2024

Instead of spreading scams, the hacker criticised the blockchain, urging users to “sell ALGO and buy ETH.” At the time of writing, access to the account had not yet been restored.

After calling the Algorand community “extremely poor,” the hacker turned attention to Tron leader Justin Sun. Posing as Warden, the hacker recounted a story of Sun offering to buy the blockchain.

“Just when I thought it was over for Algorand, my phone rang — it was His Excellency. Justin told me he would elevate the protocol by launching [stablecoins] TUSD and VRUSD. All I had to do was agree to give him full control over our network and allow minting of any tokens,” the post stated.

Mocking Sun, the hacker noted that his projects “will not be the catalyst for the next major financial crash in cryptocurrency.”

The hacker also proposed giving away 1 ETH for every percentage point ALGO drops this week.

Under the Algorand Foundation post, on-chain sleuth ZachXBT commented that the hacker was doing a better job as CEO than Warden. According to the “imposter,” he sent the analyst $10,000 for “flowers for mom and dinner for dad.”

Previously, unknown individuals hacked the X accounts of the Rocket Pool liquid staking platform, blockchain project VeChain, and the head of the analytics firm Arkham to promote scams.

In January, hackers took control of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s account to post a fake announcement about the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF.

Subsequently, the perpetrators compromised CoinGecko’s pages on the social platform, announcing a fake GCKO token giveaway.