Social media posts expose private data of Solana co-founder, following alleged extortion.
Hackers have leaked personal data of Solana co-founder Raj Gokal, according to The Block. The incident involved a hack of the Instagram page of popular rap group Migos, with 13 million subscribers, which is part of Meta Corporation. Confidential information, including photographs of Gokal's driver's license and passport, were posted on the hacked page, along with his phone number.
Another post called for viewers to "spam" Gokal, suggesting possible blackmail. At current rates, 40 bitcoins, mentioned in one of the posts, are valued at around $4.38 million. A week earlier, Gokal had warned his followers about hackers attempting to gain control of his email, social media, Google, and Apple accounts, and data.
Photos of Gokal's identification documents remained up for more than an hour before being removed in the early hours of May 27. These types of selfies with documents are often used by cryptocurrency exchanges for identity verification during the KYC (Know Your Customer) process. However, it remains unclear where these photographs originated.
Recent discussions within the crypto community have centered around how exchanges collect and store KYC information. A collective lawsuit was filed against the Coinbase exchange last week, alleging it violated privacy laws regarding biometric information without notifying users about the use of third-party services for identity verification.
This lawsuit followed a data breach of 69,000 Coinbase users, which occurred in December 2021 and was discovered almost five months later. Hackers demanded $20 million, threatening to publish the stolen data on the dark web. However, Coinbase refused to pay and instead offered a reward of the same amount for information leading to the capture of the criminals.
Meanwhile, it has been proposed to use unsold gas in the EU for crypto mining, while Sberbank is set to become a market maker for Russian crypto platforms. Additionally, a miner has been fined for using electricity worth 4.6 million rubles.
- The cybersecurity implications of the leaked Solana co-founder Raj Gokal's personal data, which includes photos of his identification documents, raise concerns about the security of technology platforms used for general-news, crime-and-justice issues, such as the KYC process in the cryptocurrency industry.
- The lawsuit against Coinbase for alleged privacy violations in the use of third-party services for identity verification in the cryptocurrency space serves as a reminder of the importance of cybersecurity in technology, particularly in relation to crime-and-justice matters, and highlights the need for transparency and security in such processes.
