io.net, a popular AI + DePIN project in the Solana ecosystem, has been attacked by hacker @ledrog123 before the airdrop, resulting in the tampering of the front-end data on the official website and causing widespread panic in the community. The io.net team responded by stating that the hacker was unable to access any sensitive user data or GPU resources, and announced a delay in the airdrop.
(Previous summary:
io.net announces token economic model to quickly understand this hot AI + DePIN project.)
(Supplemental background:
io.net research report: Can the DePIN model solve the GPU resource dilemma and open a new era of AI applications?)
Table of Contents:
Front-end attack on io.net
Immediate actions taken by the official team
TGE to be postponed until after April 28
io.net, the “AI + DePIN” project in the Solana ecosystem that has received $30 million in Series A funding, has been attracting market attention since its launch. Recently, it has become the center of community discussion due to the release of its token economic model on the 16th, the opening of user query points on the 22nd, and the announcement of the airdrop of its native token $IO on the 28th.
However, last night (25th), according to feedback from several community members, the io.net official website experienced a malfunction, suspected to be the result of a hack by @ledrog123, which caused panic in the community and concerns about being controlled by hackers.
In response, Dwei, the Chinese ambassador of io.net, was the first to state that the hacker could only modify the private names of users’ devices, and no one was running any new containers on their machines. The official team is working to salvage the situation and is expected to restore normalcy within a few minutes. However, as of the deadline, the front-end has not yet been successfully restored.
Subsequently, Ahmad Shadid, CEO and founder of io.net, explained the situation on X, emphasizing that they do not collect any personal identity information, and no sensitive user or device data has been leaked. The io.net system is designed with self-healing functionality, continuously updating each device to help restore any erroneously changed metadata.
In light of this attack, Ahmad Shadid stated that the integration of OKTA’s user-level identity verification system would be expedited and completed within the next 6 hours. In addition, io.net will also introduce Auth0 Token for user authentication to prevent unauthorized changes to metadata.
During the database recovery period, users will temporarily be unable to log in. All normal runtime records are unaffected, and this will not impact the calculation of rewards for users. Users can continue running workers, and io.net will soon request users to restart to complete the security update, while also providing a detailed report on this incident.
Regarding the reason for the hacker’s attack, Ahmad Shadid stated that it was because io.net implemented a Proof-of-Work system to detect and remove any fake GPUs, which angered the hackers and prompted them to attack users with real devices. However, the exact reason is currently unknown.
This attack has affected the highly anticipated $IO airdrop. The official Telegram administrator of io.net stated that the TGE (Token Generation Event) for $IO will be rescheduled after April 28. The exchanges have requested a delay, and more detailed information on the token issuance time and method will be provided later.
At the same time, the official team emphasized that they do not conduct any private or presale activities and warned against potential scams. They are currently awaiting final confirmation of the date and hope to launch as soon as possible.
io.net TG
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