The cryptocurrency market is going through a rough patch, but this isn’t stopping scammers from duping people out of their funds. Hackers took over the official Twitter account of India’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to promote blatant Bitcoin giveaway scams – a trend that’s been plaguing social media for months now.
It’s worth pointing out that unlike other similar incidents, the hackers did not post any malicious links directly from the NDMA’s account; instead, they used the account to respond positively to malicious links posted from other accounts, perhaps in an effort to make them look more legit.
“I sent 0.30 BTC and got 6 BTC back,” one of NDMA’s tweets read. “Elon, you are the best person I have ever seen in my life,” another said, likely responding to one of the many fake Elon Musk accounts propagating malicious giveaway links.
The good thing is the NDMA social media team has since managed to reclaim control of its account. All malicious tweets have been wiped, but the NDMA has yet to address the mishap.
This is the latest in a series of hackings targeting verified profiles .
Just yesterday, attackers hijacked the official accounts of Europe’s second largest film company and popular fashion retailer Matalan . According to reports, the hackers made off with over $150,000 worth of cryptocurrency.
[H/T @fs0c131y @olihough86 ]
Thailand tightens its grip on ICO regulation
Thai regulators have been tough on cryptocurrency and blockchain this year, and if they pull off their latest plan it will further tighten their grip on the industry.
The Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is preparing to try and launch its first regulated initial coin offering (ICO) portal later this month, according to the Bangkok Post .
It appears that ICOs will be vetted on a case-by-case basis and will be added to the portal shortly after its launch, although there is no mention of a set date as yet.
“At least one ICO portal will be certified in November, then we can approve each ICO offering, which might start in December,” SEC secretary-general Rapee Sucharitakul said to the Bangkok Post.
Thai regulators believe having regulated ICO portals will help vet ICOs for their legitimacy, help investors conduct due diligence, and ensure know-your-customer (KYC) policies are being used.
The Thai government hasn’t been afraid to roll up its sleeves and get involved in the cryptocurrency industry. Earlier this year, the Bank of Thailand teased plans for a state-backed cryptocurrency.
The plans outlined how the project would be built on Corda, a closed and centralized distributed ledger. It seems Thailand is fine with cryptocurrency, so long as its on their terms.
Big banks are launching a blockchain trade platform powered by ‘Bitcoin-like’ token
The banking industry is hell-bent on taking over the nascent blockchain and cryptocurrency market. A group of financial firms led by UBS Group AG is eyeing blockchain technology for settling cross-border trades worldwide with its own “Bitcoin-like” token.
The 14 firms – including Barclays, Nasdaq, Credit Suisse Group, Banco Santander, ING, and Lloyds Banking Group – have registered a new entity to control the devleopment of the token, dubbed ‘utility settlement coin’ (or USC for short), The Wall Street Journal reports .
The financial giants have poured over $60 million into the new company, called Fnality International. The token, which has been in the works for four years now, will function both as a payment device and a “messenger that carries all the information required to complete a trade,” according to the report.
The new permissioned blockchain system will purportedly make cross-border trades much faster and less risky. “You remove settlement risk, the counterparty risk, the market risk,” UBS investment strategy head Hyder Jaffrey told the WSJ. “All of those risks add up to costs and inefficiencies in the marketplace.”
In addition to the previously mentioned institutions, Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce , State Street Bank & Trust Co., Commerzbank AG, KBC Group NV, Mitsubishi UFG Financial Group Inc., and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp have also agreed to use the USC token.
The new platform is expected to take off within the next 12 months, which corroborates past reports suggesting the platform will be fully operational by 2020.
It remains to be seen if USC is more of a cryptocurrency than JP Morgan’s token , though.
