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- South Korean government has been under fire for not taking adequate security measures to protect cryptocurrency exchanges.
- Min Kyung-Wook, stated that the data has unveiled seven virtual currency hack incidents leading to a loss of about 115 million USD.
- Lawmakers slammed the government for its irresponsibility and raised questioned how reliable these checks were.
The South Korean government has been under fire for not taking adequate security measures to protect cryptocurrency exchanges. Recent data has revealed that even after the government’s inspection, hacking incidents have taken place at three crypto exchanges causing a total loss of over 100 million USD.
This has created an uproar within the community. Moreover, Upbit, one of South Korea’s largest crypto exchange platform, has continuingly rubbished rumours of being hacked.
Local media reported that after repeated criticisms of the government’s insufficient security policies, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Communications Commission (KCC) and the National Police Agency had submitted data to the National Assembly regarding the hacking of cryptocurrency exchanges.
Min Kyung-Wook, a member of the Science and Technology Information and Communications Committee of the South Korean National Assembly, has stated that the data has unveiled seven virtual currency hack incidents leading to a loss of about 115 million USD.
The report also revealed that the government conducted checks on 31 crypto exchanges along with citing the conditions of these exchanges. The regulator instructed these exchanges to take action to improve and resolve any security issues such as lack of a firewall information security system, the lack of system access controls, and insufficient protection against malicious code.
But 3 of these platforms were hacked after the inspection. The report states these incidents by saying “All three have also hacked after undergoing government security checks. The government has criticized for failing to take effective measures on exchange security issues.”
The first crypto platform which hacked is Youbit. It was hacked within two months of inspection and lost up to 23 million USD. The second is Coinrail which lost about 47 million USD. The third is Bithumb which underwent two separate investigations but still hacked and lost about 30 million.
Lawmakers slammed the government for its irresponsibility and raised questioned how reliable these checks were. Many said that the government must build secure regulatory systems considering the emerging importance of cryptocurrency.
Upbit has been the target of rumours as more and more reports claiming the hacking of the platform has emerged. The Kakao-backed exchange repeatedly denied it.
It also released a response statement which said “Your assets at Upbit are safe, and a large amount of cryptocurrency transfers discovered by the community is part of the management and upgrade of our wallet system.
This work is completed in a secure environment that is strictly managed by Upbit. We hope that your investment will not be affected by Damaged by false rumour.” It remains to see whether reports of its hacking are false or the platform is trying to cover up the mishap.
