Bithumb said an outsider breached the internal mobile system its employees use to work and message each other and stole personal information, while no cryptocurrency funds were reported lost as of Asian afternoon hours.
The South Korean exchange, the country’s second-largest by trading volume, said the compromised system operates separately from its trading platform. “Customer virtual assets cannot be accessed through this breach,” it said. It has not said whether deposits or withdrawals were affected or how many people’s data was exposed.
Bithumb found the intrusion on Tuesday and reported it to the Korea Internet & Security Agency and the Personal Information Protection Commission, Korean media reported. The exchange told Yonhap it was analyzing the exact scope, “including the possibility of member information being involved.”
Regulator assessing cyberattacks
Bithumb was one of three financial firms the Financial Supervisory Service said it was assessing on Wednesday. Daishin Securities said personal and credit information for 38,490 customers leaked in an outside attack. Mirae Asset Global Investments said it blocked abnormal access to some web systems and that investor information was not affected.
“I understand that major financial investment companies experienced overall hacking incidents yesterday,” FSS Governor Lee Chan-jin told a meeting with bank holding company chairs. Earlier in the month, he said cyberattacks had hit 16 South Korean financial firms as of Oct. 14.
Second control issue this year
The breach is the second hit to Bithumb’s controls this year. In February, the exchange mistakenly credited customers with 620,000 BTC, worth more than $40 billion at the time, instead of 620,000 won. CEO Lee Jae-won blamed the error on weak internal controls, saying the exchange was “acutely aware of the deficiency in internal system control.”
