South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange has been hacked

[Jos]

Just as South Korea is reportedly getting ready to regulate and legalize cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, news have emerged that Bithumb, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the country has been hacked. Data from 30,000 customers has been compromised and according to the BBC, the data is being used to fool users into letting thieves steal funds from their accounts.

In a separate report BraveNewCoin explains that Bithumb users were victims of "voice phishing," where someone phoned them up saying they worked for Bithumb and scammed them out of funds.

The breach is reported to have occurred in February, and is said to have involved an employee's home PC rather than computer servers at the firm's headquarters. Bithumb says it discovered the breach on June 29 and reported it to the authorities the next day. The exchange claims that the number of affected people represents approximately three percent of customers.

The cumulative amount of bitcoins traded at Bithumb last year were estimated at 2 trillion won (US$1.74 billion). They are one of the five largest bitcoin exchanges in the world and hosts over 13,000 bitcoins worth of trading volume daily, or roughly 10 percent of the global bitcoin trade.

Bithumb has promised initially to cover losses of up to 100,000 won (about $86) per customer, and will cover any remaining amount of money lost once it has been able to verify it.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/69995-south-korea-largest-cryptocurrency-exchange-has-hacked.html

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

This is newsworthy? Have money, will be scammed. That trick is as old as time itself.

 

[Uncle Al]

NOW ..... If it were North Koreans that had lost all their money ...... tsk, tsk, tsk ......

 

[mcborge]

Maybe it's the north Korean's trying to fund their ballistic missile program.

 

[Raoul Duke]

If my bank has a problem the government insures me up to $60,000
these guys have been promised $86, although to be fair, they say they will make good on any losses. I kinda think they have to or as a Exchange they are done.

 

[Godel]

From second article link: "The exchange posted a notice on their website stating that "compensation for personal information leakage cases has been decided." The company said they would pay up to 100,000 won per person, currently worth US$870, to members. Further damages will be compensated for as soon as the amount is confirmed."

The scammers rang up the customers pretending to be from Bithumb and asked them to tell them their one-time code from the letter the company had sent the customer when they signed up.

If that's the case, I'm not sure they should be entitled to ANY compensation. Stupidity is its own reward.

 

[GreenNova343]

The breach is reported to have occurred in February, and is said to have involved an employee's home PC rather than computer servers at the firm's headquarters.

Right there, I think that's a major problem. What was the employee doing accessing the records from home in the first place? And especially on their "personal" PC?