- The cryptocurrency market is gaining momentum again, but news of hacks continue to emerge. In a recent development, there are allegations of a data breach at Bitfinex.
- According to these claims, the exchange suffered a data breach involving 2.5 TB of data and information from 400,000 customers. However, Bitfinex has not confirmed these allegations.
- Meanwhile, Tether CEO and Bitfinex CTO, Paolo Ardoino, made a statement suggesting that the data breach may not be accurate.
Bitfinex, a major cryptocurrency exchange, is facing allegations of a significant data breach. The exchange has yet to confirm these claims while its CTO suggests the breach may not be accurate.
Allegations of a Serious Data Breach at the Crypto Exchange
According to on-chain detective Shinoji Research, a data breach occurred at Bitfinex potentially affecting 400,000 users and resulting in the theft of 2.5 terabytes of data. It’s important to note that Bitfinex has not yet confirmed this information. Shinoji Research claims that the FSociety ransomware group is responsible for the attack and provided links to a page containing usernames and plaintext passwords.
Is the Bitfinex Data Leak a Fake Incident?
Following the news of the development, Tether CEO and Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino made a lengthy statement on the X platform. Ardoino suggested that the Bitfinex data leak is likely a fake incident, citing the following reasons:
- The sample data contains 22,500 email and password records.
- Bitfinex does not store plaintext passwords or 2FA passwords in plaintext.
- Only 5,000 of the 22,500 emails match with Bitfinex users.
- The suspected hackers did not contact Bitfinex. If they had real information, they would contact Bitfinex through bug rewards, customer support tickets, etc.
Bitfinex CTO: This is FUD, Funds are Safe!
Meanwhile, the Bitfinex CTO stated, “We believe this is entirely FUD, but we will continue to review the information to ensure nothing is overlooked. The funds are safe. The posts were published on April 25 and they were given 7 days to contact us. However, we only learned about this claim yesterday. If they had real information, they would ask for a ramson through our bug reward, customer support ticket, emails, twitter, etc. We could not find any request.”
Conclusion
While the allegations of a data breach at Bitfinex are serious, the exchange’s CTO has suggested that the incident may be a false alarm. As the situation unfolds, it serves as a reminder of the importance of robust security measures in the cryptocurrency industry.
