An employee of the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bitkoex has shared on an unencrypted group chat containing private information on 19 company’s clients. This move has put around $650,000 worth of digital currency at risk, according to Coindesk Korea.
The shared information contained the amount of (KRM) Karma cryptocurrency held on each exposed 19 accounts, user’s email addresses, private keys and wallet addresses. Three days after the incident some of the coins exposed still occupied the same addresses, according to some reports. Bitkoex however, says that the information was shared due to a mistake and that all assets were immediately transferred to a cold wallet, adding that nothing was lost. When Bitkoex began operating in May 2018, cryptocurrency exchange advertised itself as a "security system similar to a banking system".
Also worth noting is that the incident happened just 2 days after one of the largest South Korean crypto exchanges, Bithumb has suffered at the hands of cyber thieves, losing around $31 million (35 billion KRW ) worth of cryptocurrencies.
Earlier this year, the South Korean Ministry of Science has reviewed security measures of 21 local crypto exchanges and declared that most companies are vulnerable to cyber attacks.
By Nadya Astam