Bithumb Bitcoin Exchange Hacked; 30,000 Customers’ Data Compromised

In international cybersecurity news this week, Bithumb, the South Korean bitcoin exchange, has been hacked, with the bad guys compromising the data of 30,000 customers.

According to a cybersecurity report in Business Insider, citing Yonhap News, Bithumb, which is one of the largest bitcoin exchanges around the globe, was infiltrated by a cyberattack. The Security Agency, the internet watchdog in South Korea, is looking into the hack after customers complained they lost money.

In the Yonhap News report, the company said users’ passwords were not stolen. “The employee PC, not the head office server, was hacked. Personal information such as mobile phone and email address of some users were leaked. However, some customers were found to have been stolen from because of the disposable password used in electronic financial transactions,” Bithumb said in a statement regarding the cyberattack, noted the report.

The report also stated that some of the customers of the exchange fell victim to so-called voice phishing, a hacker attack in which someone will call them and claim to work for Bithumb and steal money from them.  

With prices for certain cryptocurrencies surging in recent weeks, the digital currency is not only piquing the interest of investors, but also hackers, who see it as a new area in which to scam people out of their wealth and personal data.

Late last month, GDAX, the digital currency exchange operated by Coinbase that saw the price of cryptocurrency Ethereum drop in a flash crash, announced it was reimbursing customers. The company said at the time it would reimburse customers who lost money when the cryptocurrency dropped from $320 to the low of $0.10. The price recovered quickly, but the speedy decline in the value of the digital currency forced traders to experience margin calls or stop-loss orders that resulted in steep losses. The exchange noted that it wouldn’t reverse any of the trades, so for those who bought the Ethereum cryptocurrency when it plummeted in the flash crash and made a profit when it rose will get to keep their profits.