Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Cybercrime

Hacked Japan Crypto Exchange Refunds Customers

Japan-based virtual currency exchange Coincheck said Tuesday it had refunded more than $440 million to customers following the hack of its systems, which was one of the largest thefts of its kind.

Japan-based virtual currency exchange Coincheck said Tuesday it had refunded more than $440 million to customers following the hack of its systems, which was one of the largest thefts of its kind.

The company said it used its own funds to reimburse about 46.6 billion yen ($440 million) to all 260,000 customers who lost their holdings of NEM, a leading cryptocurrency.

“Procedures have been completed with the accounts of all 260,000 customers,” company spokesman Yosuke Imai told AFP.

Thieves syphoned away 523 million units of the cryptocurrency from Coincheck — then valued at $547 million — during the January 26 hack, which exceeded the $480 million in bitcoin stolen in 2014 from another Japanese exchange, MtGox.

The 2014 hack prompted Japan to issue new regulations, requiring exchanges to obtain a government licence, but Coincheck was allowed to continue operating while the Financial Services Agency was reviewing its application.

Authorities raided Coincheck’s office last month and have slapped the company with sanctions.

Coincheck chief operating officer Yusuke Otsuka said last week that the company’s system was breached after several staff members opened emails containing malware.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

The firm had failed to upgrade its systems to keep up with the rapid expansion of the cryptocurrency market, he said.

In February, seven plaintiffs — two companies and five individuals — filed a lawsuit against Coincheck seeking the reimbursement of 19.53 million yen in lost virtual currency and further compensation for interest lost due to the hack.

As many as 10,000 businesses in Japan are thought to accept bitcoin, and bitFlyer — the country’s main bitcoin exchange — saw its user base grow beyond one million in November.

Written By

AFP 2023

Click to comment

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

SecurityWeek’s Threat Detection and Incident Response Summit brings together security practitioners from around the world to share war stories on breaches, APT attacks and threat intelligence.

Register

Securityweek’s CISO Forum will address issues and challenges that are top of mind for today’s security leaders and what the future looks like as chief defenders of the enterprise.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Cybercrime

The changing nature of what we still generally call ransomware will continue through 2023, driven by three primary conditions.

Cybercrime

Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus Group informed some customers last week that their online accounts had been breached by hackers.

Cybercrime

As it evolves, web3 will contain and increase all the security issues of web2 – and perhaps add a few more.

Cybercrime

A recently disclosed vBulletin vulnerability, which had a zero-day status for roughly two days last week, was exploited in a hacker attack targeting the...

Cybercrime

Satellite TV giant Dish Network confirmed that a recent outage was the result of a cyberattack and admitted that data was stolen.

Cybercrime

Zendesk is informing customers about a data breach that started with an SMS phishing campaign targeting the company’s employees.

Artificial Intelligence

The release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022 has demonstrated the potential of AI for both good and bad.

Artificial Intelligence

The degree of danger that may be introduced when adversaries start to use AI as an effective weapon of attack rather than a tool...