One of the world’s biggest cyber-currency exchanges is under inquiry after it recognized that one of its employee’s PCs had been hacked. South Korean based Bithumb has stated that it believes that more than 30,000 of its customer’s private data were stolen as a result.
It appears the data was later used to fool users into letting thieves take funds from their accounts.
Bithumb has promised compensation. It seems good news for the people who turn out to be a victim of this horrible thing.
However, the Korea Internet and Security Agency, a local government-empowered watchdog, has launched an investigation into the matter, according to the Yonhap news agency.
Scam calls
Bithumb permits its members to acquire and sell the virtual currencies Bitcoin and Ethereum. It is South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, based on latest trading volumes, and one of the five major in the world.
The breach is reported to happen in February and is said to have caught up an employee’s home PC rather than computer servers at the company’s headquarters.
Bithumb is reported to the authorities the next day they have discovered the breach on 29 June.
Even though a notice posted to the firm’s site said the leaked data did not hold passwords, dozens of customers have reported getting follow-up scam calls and texts in June that convinced them to share their accounts’ verification codes.
Bithumb has initially assured to cover up losses of up to 100,000 won ($86; £67) per client, and to put into this one time it has been capable of bearing out individual losses.
But it is uncertain whether victims of this event will be compensated in full.
An unconfirmed local report said one member declared to have lost 1.2bn won ($1.04m; £806,000).
Currently, virtual currencies are not regulated by South Korea’s financial authorities and efforts to deal with the matter have made slight steps forward.
