Hackers took over rap group Migos’ Instagram account to post Solana co-founder Raj Gokal’s stolen personal information, including his passport and phone number, on May 27 after he refused to pay a 40 Bitcoin (BTC) ransom.
Blockchain analyst ZachXBT explained on social media that the attackers gained access to one of Gokal’s email accounts days before the Instagram incident.
The account contained know-your-customer photos of Gokal and his wife that had synced to a cloud backup. Users typically supply these images to crypto exchanges or other financial services.
Gokal alerted followers on May 20 that unknown parties had “been trying to take control of my email, social media, Google, Apple, etc” and advised them to treat any unexpected token launches or fundraising requests as signs that the attackers had succeeded.
Failed ransom attempt
After obtaining the documents, the attackers sought 40 BTC in exchange for keeping the material private, as revealed in the caption of one of the photos posted. Gokal did not pay.
When the extortion attempt failed, the same actor compromised Migos’ 13 million-follower Instagram profile and uploaded images showing Gokal and his wife holding their passports.
Gokal addressed the episode only with a comment on X:
“Always remember to dress up smart for your KYC photos. you never know what kind of reach they might get on social media.”
No relation to Coinbase data breach
ZachXBT said the breach relied on social-engineering tactics against Gokal’s email provider rather than on leaked data from the recent Coinbase data breach incident, refuting speculation that the doxxing was linked to that breach.
Coinbase revealed on May 15 that it suffered a data breach after threat actors bribed support agents with access to its internal systems. As a result, the group targeted the exchange customers in social engineering attacks.
According to a May 15 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Coinbase estimated remediation costs and voluntary customer reimbursements to be between $180 million and $400 million.
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