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NFT Marketplace OpenSea Says Emails Exposed in Data Breach

The breach happened at OpenSea's email vendor.

Andrew Blok Editor I
Andrew Blok has been an editor at CNET covering HVAC and home energy, with a focus on solar, since October 2021. As an environmental journalist, he navigates the changing energy landscape to help people make smart energy decisions. He's a graduate of the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism at Michigan State and has written for several publications in the Great Lakes region, including Great Lakes Now and Environmental Health News, since 2019. You can find him in western Michigan watching birds.
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A logo for NFT marketplace OpenSea.

OpenSea operates the largest NFT marketplace.

 OpenSea

Email addresses for OpenSea users and newsletter subscribers have been downloaded and shared with an "unauthorized third party," the NFT marketplace said Wednesday. An employee at OpenSea's email delivery vendor, Customer.io, "misused their employee access to download and share email addresses" from OpenSea accounts.

"If you have shared your email with OpenSea in the past, you should assume you were impacted," OpenSea said. It also warned users to be on the lookout for phishing emails.

Customer.io is conducting an investigation with OpenSea and a forensic investigations firm, and it has suspended the credentials of the employee suspected of the breach, a company spokesperson said in an email to CNET. At this time, it does not think the breach affected any other businesses.

NFTs, short for nonfungible tokens, are digital tokens tied to some sort of digital asset: an image, video, work of art or even a tweet. Ownership of these tokens is typically recorded on the ethereum blockchain. OpenSea operates a market place that allows people to buy and sell their NFTs, similar to how auction houses allow people to buy and sell artwork and collectibles.

The world of NFTs have seen other security issues, like a high-profile phishing heist (and eventual return) of an NFT from the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection. There are actions you can take to keep your NFTs safe.

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