FSS to convene crypto industry security chiefs after string of exchange hacks

[Financial News] A spate of hacking incidents at domestic crypto exchanges has prompted financial authorities to convene industry security officials to discuss response measures.
According to the crypto industry on the 8th, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) plans to hold a meeting on the 19th to discuss responses to hacking incidents in the virtual asset sector.
The meeting is for chief information security officers (CISOs) from all domestic virtual asset service providers, including exchanges and custody providers.
The meeting is expected to review each company’s security management and operations and discuss measures to prevent and respond to hacking, among other issues.
Financial authorities are strengthening security across the financial sector.
On the 5th, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) said it would conduct a comprehensive inspection across the entire financial sector, including virtual asset service providers and electronic financial businesses, of internal control practices relating to external access points and security management overall.
Security concerns across the industry are growing as personal information leaks and crypto asset thefts have continued at domestic exchanges, while large amounts of assets were siphoned off in a hack at overseas exchange Binance.
Since early September, unauthorized access to some GOPAX user accounts has led to the personal information of seven users and two current and former employees being leaked. The exchange also suffered an additional information leak last month.
On the 6th of this month, after receiving an extortion email threatening a hack, GOPAX halted deposits, withdrawals and trading of all virtual assets on its platform. It is also now moving all its assets to cold wallets disconnected from the internet.
At the end of last month, data leaked through Bithumb’s internal mobile groupware system, Daou Office, included the personal information of 715 employees and the names, mobile phone numbers, resident registration numbers and copies of identification documents of 844 customers.
At the coin-market exchange Prabang, assets worth 100 million won were stolen through abnormal withdrawals from a hot wallet connected to the internet. An additional leak of personal information belonging to seven users was also recently confirmed.
The affected exchanges are analyzing the damage already reported and checking for any further losses.
GOPAX is reexamining the details and causes of the personal information leak and is taking internal measures after suspending its services to prevent further damage from hacking.
Immediately after the incident, Bithumb took emergency security measures and is analyzing the incident and whether there was further damage in coordination with relevant agencies, including the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) and the FSS. Follow-up measures are also underway, including security updates to Daou Office, which served as the entry point for the hack.
[email protected] Jang Min-kwon Reporter