Major South Korean crypto exchange bithumb investigated for leak of user data

The Supreme Prosecutors' Office of the Republic of Korea has brought in Bithumb's head of personal information security in an ongoing investigation. In 2017, Bithumb suffered a security breach that led to the loss of a substantial amount of crypto assets. The Prosecutors' Office alleged that 31,000 pieces of personal information including name, phone number, email, and cryptocurrency trading record were leaked, and said that hackers used illicitly obtained information from Bithumb users to steal an additional $7 million in crypto assets.

An official at the Prosecutors' Office told local publications in a statement translated by Messari that the Prosecutors' Office decided to prosecute based on the emergence of additional victims from the 2017 case. A Bithumb spokesperson told TokenPost that the loss of user funds in 2017 is irrelevant to the leak of personal data as it was not possible to withdraw funds of users solely using the data extracted from the security breach.