Description

Numerous social media posts have raised an alarm regarding a data breach at Kroll, a financial and risk advisory firm. This breach has led to the unauthorized exposure of personal information belonging to certain individuals making credit claims. Kroll, which is assisting in claims for insolvent companies FTX, BlockFi, and Genesis Global Holdco, has confirmed that one of its employees fell victim to a SIM-swapping attack. This attack allowed hackers to acquire the employee's phone number, which they then used to gain access to files containing personal data of individuals filing for bankruptcy claims. FTX and BlockFi have recently communicated that Kroll experienced a security incident involving third-party access to its systems, resulting in the exposure of "limited, non-sensitive customer data of specific claimants." While the exact nature of the compromised data remains unspecified, both companies have clarified that user passwords and client funds remain unaffected. They emphasize that neither FTX's nor BlockFi's systems were directly breached. Both companies have assured that Kroll will directly inform the affected individuals, and Kroll itself has already taken steps to contain and address the incident. In an official statement dated August 25th, Kroll revealed that on August 19th, a threat actor targeted a T-Mobile account linked to a Kroll employee. Through this attack, the perpetrator managed to steal the employee's phone number. Kroll has also confirmed that it has notified the individuals impacted by the breach. Subsequent to the breach at Kroll, several individuals associated with pending bankruptcy cases involving crypto firms have shared instances of phishing emails on social media. These fraudulent messages typically impersonate FTX and falsely inform recipients that they are eligible to initiate withdrawals of digital assets from their accounts, with the claimed amount matching their last recorded balance on the platform. The objective of these phishing messages is to trick recipients into disclosing the seeds that safeguard their cryptocurrency wallets, thereby enabling the attackers to empty the wallets. Although Genesis Global Holdco has not made any public statements about the incident, CoinDesk editor Rob Mitchell shared a notice from the company explaining that the Kroll breach stemmed from a SIM-swapping attack targeting one of their employees' T-Mobile numbers. By circumventing multi-factor authentication, the attackers gained control over the employee's account, granting them access to files stored on Kroll's cloud-based systems. These files contained sensitive details such as full names, physical addresses, email addresses, and particulars of debtor claims.