A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange suffered a heist in which thieves made off with approximately $32 million in stolen assets. On 20 June, Bithumb disclosed the hack in a statement published to its website:
We noticed that between last night and today early morning, about 35,000,000,000 KRW worth cryptocurrencies have been stolen. However, this loss will be compensated by Bithumb's own reservoir, and all assets of our cust omers[sic] are securely saved in Bithumb's cold wallet, hence all asset is completely safe and secured.
Bithumb said it's in the process of reviewing the security mechanisms of its deposit/withdrawal service. It decided to halt its cryptocurrency withdrawal/deposit service and KRW service until that checkup is complete. https://twitter.com/BithumbOfficial/status/1009240525159858177 In the meantime, the exchange urged customers to not deposit any funds into their Bithumb wallet addresses. https://twitter.com/BithumbOfficial/status/1009277296211972101 The hacking notice didn't provide any details about what types of cryptocurrency the bad actors stole, how they infiltrated Bithumb's systems and how they exfiltrated the stolen South Korean won, which amounted to $31.6 million. It did say, however, that Bithumb will provide additional information about the incident at some point in the future. This isn't the first time Bithumb has suffered a security incident. In July of 2017, the cryptocurrency exchange confirmed a hacking campaign on its website. Bithumb didn't disclose the total value of stolen assets at the time, but according to Bleeping Computer, some users reported losses amounting to millions of won. The marketplace responded to the incident by offering to pay 100,000 won ($897) to each affected user until midnight 5 July 2017. Bithumb isn't the only South Korean cryptocurrency exchange to suffer hacking attacks, either. In early June, Coinrail revealed it was cooperating with law enforcement after suffering a hacking attempt. News of that attack followed nearly six months after South Korean Bitoin exchange Youbit announced it had filed for bankruptcy and decided to cease all operations after suffering two hacking attacks in 2017.
