Hacked Crypto Exchange Coincheck Confirms Sensitive Data Breach, Funds are SAFU For Now

Popular Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck informed that it became a victim of a data breach a few days ago. While the company said that all customer funds are safe, the perpetrators may have gathered users’ personal information and emails.

Unauthorized Breach At Coincheck

According to the statement from the Japanese platform, “a third party” had accessed its domain registration service during the period from May 31st to June 1st, 2020. The perpetrators changed the domain registration information, and, ultimately, gained illegal access to some emails from customers sent within the same period.

The announcement noted that approximately 200 clients fall into this category. The information possibly leaked to the “third party” includes email addresses listed in the recipient field and any data contained in that email. The latter could involve lots of sensitive information, such as names, registered addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, and even ID selfies.

The company has begun an investigation and advises customers to refrain from sending any emails to their regular support channel for the time being. It’s worth noting, though, that Coincheck has reassured its users that “there is no impact on your assets at this time.”

Regular services such as depositing/withdrawing funds and receiving/purchasing/selling cryptocurrency assets will continue to operate as usual. However, the exchange will “stop the remittance of crypto assets in our service again, considering the progress of the investigation by the domain registration service operator.”

Coincheck Drained For $532M

While the Japanese exchange asserted that all customers funds are safe now, the company has a somewhat unfavorable history in terms of cryptocurrency thefts.

In January 2018, Coincheck froze all withdrawals on its platform. The initial announcement at the time claimed that they had stopped all NEM deposits. Shortly after, however, the company extended the freeze to NEM sales, purchases, and withdrawals.

The reason for the suspension turned out to be a bold hack, in which the perpetrators stole more than $500 million worth of NEM. The company explained after the heist that the attackers succeeded because the stolen NEM was stored in a hot wallet, and they managed to obtain the private keys.

Until this day, this attack remains the biggest theft in crypto.