How My Hive Account Got Hacked In A Split Second!

Just a couple of hours ago, @youngkedar98 was my account. Now, it's no longer mine. I've been kicked out of it.

Here is how it all happened.

It was on this giveaway post. On the comment section, a user shared a link about a bogus collaboration between Hive and Taki, a sort of air drop to claim your 100 Hive and 1000 Taki.

I've never participated in a claim drop before, I just don't see the point in doing it. BUT somehow, I was intrigued by this one and decided to click the link and check what it was about.

The funnel started with a website about Taki and how it's similar to Hive, presumably making the collaboration look 'sensible'. They highlighted some insane features about Taki and everything.

Next you're asked to ckick the 'whitelist' button so that the tokens can be delivered to you when it's air dropped later this month. One of the first post on the Leoalpha community page gave a tip about how to spot scammy website; it looks super professional. This Taki website was just like that! As I'm writing this article, I tried to link back to it but I can't find the address.

Next, you're asked to link your wallet, hivesigner was presented as a way to link your Hive wallet. I'm familiar with hivesigner, been using it for awhile. The hivesigner tab asked for both my username and private key. By default, hivesigner doesn't asked for a private key, it only asked for the hivesigner password.

In my subconscious mind, I was put off by it and saw it as another red flag (the first one being the super professional looking website) but my conscious mind filled out the details anyway and I clicked continue.

Then I was presented with a bunch of different private wallets to choose from (metamask, wallet connect, crypto.com wallet, trust wallet, atomic wallet etc). I scrolled down below and choose the other wallets, that's where the capital mistake happened. It asked for my Master Password and I stupidly give it away.

The funny thing was it was at that same moment that I realized I was been scammed. So I quickly went back to the peakd interface to change my keys but I was late by a few seconds (it was less than a minute since I gave away the master password), the message prompt I got was 'Oops, you don't have the authority'. I tried a few more times but it kept giving me the same message.

When I clicked on my wallet, I saw that my HBD in savings has been wiped out (transfered!) and a full powerdown has been initiated. Normally, it takes 3 days waiting period for HBD savings to be withdrawn but here the HBD savings were transferred to another Hive account @wwefun. The funny thing is that it wasn't in savings on the other account, it was liquid.

Impressions

To me, It all seem to happen in trance mode. I knew what was happening(subconsciously) but I did it anyway (consciously). Experience really matters. Reading and observing is good but it's only when you experience things that you actually learn and understand it.

Due to the extensive selections of wallet on the last funnel page, I think this hacker(s) are targeting the whole cryptosphere. Hive is just part of the mix, the pattern is present a collaboration, get a bunch of user whitelisted, get some to link their wallets.

When digging the @wwefun wallet transactions, this has been happening for quite some time (since last year). The good news is that it's not that frequent and most victims are newbies just like myself.

The key takeaway is there are bad apples everywhere, you have to be very careful and always on the lookout. Nowhere is safe!

Note: the user (@splashon) later made a post and mentioned that the link shared is a scam. Seems like a partial hacking. I guess it was too late for people like me.