Hackers stole $32 million from Bitpoint cryptocurrency exchange

BITPoint Japan-based cryptocurrency announced that hackers have stolen more than $32 million (3.5 billion yen) worth of cryptocurrency due to a cyber attack.

BITPoint Japan-based cryptocurrency was victim of a cyber attack, the Remixpoint’s subsidiary announced that hackers have stolen more than $32 million (3.5 billion yen) worth of cryptocurrency.

BITPoint discovered the security breach overnight and immediately halted its services.

“Today, we have stopped the remittance (sending) and receiving (depositing) services from 6:30, but we will stop all services including transactions and sending and receiving from around 10:30.
We apologize for the great inconvenience to our customers, but we appreciate your understanding and cooperation.” reads a statement published by the company.

BITPoint Japan manages various virtual currencies, including the popular Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple.

“The apparent hack was discovered after an error appeared in the firm’s outgoing funds transfer system on Thursday night.” reported the AFP press.

AFP initially reported that the incident only affected wallets hosted on system exposed online (“hot wallet”), while “cold wallets”were not impacted.

Later, a document released by RemixPoint, confirmed that hackers stole funds from both of its “hot” and “cold” wallets.

Remixpoint only revealed that an investigation is ongoing, but avoided to disclose further details of the cyber heist.

BITPoint would compensate customers for the losses, roughly 2.5 billion yen ($23 million) worth of the currency that were stolen belong to customer funds, while the remaining are owned by the exchange.

Immediately after the disclosure of the incident, Remixpoint shares fell 18.6 percent.

The incident is the latest in a string of similar cases at Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges.

At the end of June, crooks stole millions worth of cryptocurrencies from another cryptocurrency exchange, the Singapore-based Bitrue.

Cryptocurrency exchanges are a profitable target for cybercriminals, in the past few years, many companies reported thefts of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency. The list of hacked exchanges includes Bithumb Binance, Coinrail, Zaif, Coincheck, and Bitfinex.

“The hacks have prompted greater oversight of crypto exchanges by Japan’s Financial Services Agency but critics says security gaps remain.” concludes the AFP press.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – BITPoint, hacking)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.