• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Stormous Ransomware gang targets North Country HealthCare, claims 600K patient data stolen

 | 

United Natural Foods Expects $400M revenue impact from June cyber attack

 | 

Cisco patches critical CVE-2025-20337 bug in Identity Services Engine with CVSS 10 Severity

 | 

UNC6148 deploys Overstep malware on SonicWall devices, possibly for ransomware operations

 | 

Operation Eastwood disrupted operations of pro-Russian hacker group NoName057(16)

 | 

Salt Typhoon breach: Chinese APT compromises U.S. Army National Guard network

 | 

Former US Army member confesses to Telecom hack and extortion conspiracy

 | 

CVE-2025-6554 marks the fifth actively exploited Chrome Zero-Day patched by Google in 2025

 | 

DDoS peaks hit new highs: Cloudflare mitigated massive 7.3 Tbps assault

 | 

U.S. CISA adds Wing FTP Server flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Android Malware Konfety evolves with ZIP manipulation and dynamic loading

 | 

Belk hit by May cyberattack: DragonForce stole 150GB of data

 | 

North Korea-linked actors spread XORIndex malware via 67 malicious npm packages

 | 

FBI seized multiple piracy sites distributing pirated video games

 | 

An attacker using a $500 radio setup could potentially trigger train brake failures or derailments from a distance

 | 

Interlock ransomware group deploys new PHP-based RAT via FileFix

 | 

Global Louis Vuitton data breach impacts UK, South Korea, and Turkey

 | 

Experts uncover critical flaws in Kigen eSIM technology affecting billions

 | 

Spain awarded €12.3 million in contracts to Huawei

 | 

Patch immediately: CVE-2025-25257 PoC enables remote code execution on Fortinet FortiWeb

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Cyber Crime
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • X Account of leading cybersecurity firm Mandiant was hacked because not adequately protected

X Account of leading cybersecurity firm Mandiant was hacked because not adequately protected

Pierluigi Paganini January 11, 2024

The X account of cybersecurity firm Mandiant was likely hacked through a brute-force password attack, the company revealed.

Last week, threat actors hacked the X account of cybersecurity firm Mandiant and used it to impersonate the Phantom crypto platform and share a cryptocurrency scam.

The X account of the Google-owned firm Mandiant has over 120,000 followers.

Once the cybercriminals hijacked the account, renamed it to @phantomsolw, then started advertising a rogue website impersonating the Phantom crypto service.

The threat actors exploited the account to promote an airdrop scam. Followers were encouraged to check if they were among the fortunate 250,000 eligible for free tokens. The scam was designed to drain funds from the victims’ wallets.

The account was under the control of the attackers for several hours.

“We are aware of the incident impacting the Mandiant X account. We’ve since regained control over the account and are currently working on restoring it.” reads a statement sent by a Mandiant spokesperson to several media outlets.

​The attackers also trolled Mandiant with posts saying. “Sorry, change password please.” and “Check bookmarks when you get account back.”

Mandiant launched an investigation into the incident.

“We have finished our investigation into last week’s Mandiant X account takeover and determined it was likely a brute force password attack, limited to this single account.” the company said on X.

The security firm revealed that it was hacked as a result of a “brute-force password attack,” carried out by a drainer-as-a-service (DaaS) group.

The company admitted that its account was not adequately protected because the 2FA was not enabled.

Normally, 2FA would have mitigated this, but due to some team transitions and a change in X’s 2FA policy, we were not adequately protected. We've made changes to our process to ensure this doesn't happen again.

— Mandiant (part of Google Cloud) (@Mandiant) January 10, 2024

The attack took place on January 3, 2024, the company’s X account was used to distribute links to a phishing page hosting a cryptocurrency drainer tracked as CLINKSINK.

Multiple threat actors have conducted campaigns since December 2023 that use the CLINKSINK drainer to steal funds and tokens from Solana (SOL) cryptocurrency users.

Drainers are malicious scripts and smart contracts that actors use to steal funds and/or digital assets from victims’ cryptocurrency wallets after they are tricked into approving transactions. 

“The identified campaigns included at least 35 affiliate IDs that are associated with a common drainer-as-a-service (DaaS), which uses CLINKSINK. The operator(s) of this DaaS provide the drainer scripts to affiliates in exchange for a percentage of the stolen funds, typically around 20%. We estimate the total value of assets stolen by affiliates in these recent campaigns to be at least $900,000 USD.” reads the report published by Mandiant. 

The threat actors employed the use of social media and chat applications (i.e. X and Discord) to spread cryptocurrency-themed phishing pages to trick victims into connecting their wallets to claim a bogus token airdrop.

“The observed CLINKSINK phishing domains and pages have leveraged a wide range of fake token airdrop-themed lures masquerading as legitimate cryptocurrency resources, such as Phantom, DappRadar, and BONK (Figures 1-3). These phishing pages have loaded the malicious CLINKSINK JavaScript drainer code to facilitate a connection to victim wallets and the subsequent theft of funds.” continues the analysis. “When a victim visits one of these phishing pages, they are lured into connecting their wallet in order to claim a token airdrop. After connecting their wallet, the victim is then prompted to sign a transaction to the drainer service, which allows it to siphon funds from the victim.”

CLINKSINK drainers are developed to check the current balance on the wallet and steal the crypto assets tricking the victims into signing a fraudulent transaction.

Mandiant discovered numerous DaaS offerings that rely on the CLINKSINK drainer, including ‘Chick Drainer,’ which may now operate at least partially as ‘Rainbow Drainer.'”

The researchers speculate that the source code of the drainers is available to multiple threat actors, allowing them to carry out independent campaigns.

“The wide availability and low cost of many drainers, combined with a relatively high potential for profit, likely makes them attractive operations for many financially motivated actors.” concludes the report that includes YARA Rule for the detection of the CLINKSINK drainer activity “Given the increase in cryptocurrency values and the low barrier to entry for draining operations, we anticipate that financially motivated threat actors of varying levels of sophistication will continue to conduct drainer operations for the foreseeable future.”


Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Mandiant)


facebook linkedin twitter

Cybercrime drainer Hacking hacking news information security news IT Information Security malware Mandiant Pierluigi Paganini Security Affairs Security News

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 17, 2025
Stormous Ransomware gang targets North Country HealthCare, claims 600K patient data stolen
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 17, 2025
United Natural Foods Expects $400M revenue impact from June cyber attack
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Stormous Ransomware gang targets North Country HealthCare, claims 600K patient data stolen

    Data Breach / July 17, 2025

    United Natural Foods Expects $400M revenue impact from June cyber attack

    Security / July 17, 2025

    Cisco patches critical CVE-2025-20337 bug in Identity Services Engine with CVSS 10 Severity

    Security / July 17, 2025

    UNC6148 deploys Overstep malware on SonicWall devices, possibly for ransomware operations

    Hacking / July 17, 2025

    Operation Eastwood disrupted operations of pro-Russian hacker group NoName057(16)

    Cyber Crime / July 16, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT