Zerodha co-founder Nithin Kamath said his personal X account was compromised on Wednesday as he fell victim to a phishing attempt. The attackers gained access to a single login session and shared a few scammy cryptocurrency links, he told to his 7.4 lakh followers.
Kamath said due to a "momentary lapse in attention", he opened a phishing e-mail that morning while at home browsing on his personal device.
He shared a screenshot of the e-mail which showed a security alert about a 'suspicious login' via his X account. A closer look showed the ID name of the account was quirky.
So, my personal Twitter account was compromised yesterday because I fell for a phishing e-mail early in the morning while at home when browsing on my personal device.
October 16, 2025
A momentary lapse in attention. The e-mail got through all spam and phishing filters. I clicked on the 'Change… pic.twitter.com/4x4Pg8MtUjExplaining the chain of events, the billionaire entrepreneur said the phishing e-mail managed to evade all spam and phishing filters.
He clicked on the 'Change Your Password' link and entered the password. That's when the attackers gained access to a single login session and used it to post few scammy cryptocurrency links.
"I had 2FA enabled, so luckily, they couldn't take over the full account apart from gaining access to the one session from the phishing flow. Also, the entire thing appeared to be fully AI-automated and not personal," he said.
"Goes on to show that no matter how careful we are, all it takes is one slip of the mind," he reflected on the episode. "As important as technical cybersecurity, are human processes, policies, procedures that account for worst-case scenarios and the psychology of the weakest link, which is us."
Nithin Kamath stressed on the need to have a two-factor authentication, but noted that human behaviour can still leave a user vulnerable.
"This is why it is so important for cybersecurity frameworks within organisations and governments to be holistic and not fixate on technical solutions. Despite awareness, policies, systems, and conversations at Zerodha on these risks on a regular basis, all it took was one slight slip of the mind," he said.
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