Zaif hacked for $60 million

[xtraelv]

Exchange wallets are still big targets for thieves. These thefts make bank heists look small.

Yet another Japan-based cryptocurrency exchange has been hacked, losing a 6.7 billion yen (about $60 million worth of cryptocurrency), including 5,966 bitcoins.

The licensed exchange, called Zaif, is operated by the Tech Bureau. It said on Thursday that the exchange first noticed an unusual outflow of funds on the platform around 17:00 Japan time on September 14, after which the company suspended asset deposit and withdrawal services.

Tech Bureau explained that after further investigation, it discovered that hackers with unauthorized access to the exchange's hot wallets had stolen roughly $60 million in bitcoin, bitcoin cash, and MonaCoin. That being said, the exact amount of bitcoin cash stolen remains unknown.

The exchange added that since its own asset reserve is currently around 2.2 billion yen (or $20 million), it has reached an agreement with a Japan-listed firm called Fisco to receive a $44.5 million investment in exchange for a major share of ownership.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-exchange-zaif-hacked-in-60-million-6000-bitcoin-theft/

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[gentlemand]

Slightly shocking all round. Tech Bureau are a long standing crypto company and how they could've allowed something like this to happen unnoticed for what seems like a few days is beyond me.

Zaif was also one of the first 'properly' regulated Japanese exchanges. I presumed regulation entailed some serious security and being held to it. It's all looking a bit wobblier than before.

[eddie13]

Damn that is bad news.. I really hope it isn't a good excuse for a dump because we are right on that support and I'm hoping things are turning around..

That could have been MY money..
I was very close to using that exchange a while ago and just checked it out again recently. I have an account but no funds on it..

It's pretty crazy that in 2018 the big exchange operators still haven't figured out how to get their poop in a group good enough to not get hacked. One would think they would have made better security enhancements or something by now. This is not new.

[gentlemand]

Damn that is bad news.. I really hope it isn't a good excuse for a dump because we are right on that support and I'm hoping things are turning around..

That could have been MY money..
I was very close to using that exchange a while ago and just checked it out again recently. I have an account but no funds on it..

It's pretty crazy that in 2018 the big exchange operators still haven't figured out how to get their poop in a group good enough to not get hacked. One would think they would have made better security enhancements or something by now. This is not new.

I was on the verge of signing up there too but I seem to remember their verification stuff being heavy, plus I'm not sure what the Japanese attitude to white devils is on their exchanges.

It's nowhere near as dire as the Coincheck hack where they literally had everything in a hot wallet. They could've saved themselves hundreds of millions of dollars with one Trezor.

Those amounts seem right ish for a hot wallet considering how many people come and go per day. They really need to figure out how to be non hot though.

[Kemarit]

Damn that is bad news.. I really hope it isn't a good excuse for a dump because we are right on that support and I'm hoping things are turning around..

Yes, bad news indeed. We all know that any news today really affects the market dramatically. I'm seeing few panics here and there but I hope it stays above $6000.

That could have been MY money..
I was very close to using that exchange a while ago and just checked it out again recently. I have an account but no funds on it..

I was also wanted to try out that exchange, but as @gentlemand, verification is heavy, my first submission was rejected.

It's pretty crazy that in 2018 the big exchange operators still haven't figured out how to get their poop in a group good enough to not get hacked. One would think they would have made better security enhancements or something by now. This is not new.

Perhaps they did try to upgrade their security but we all know how capable those hackers are. They're like one step ahead of the game. But damn, $60 million is a lot of money for those hackers to live a good life. Let this be another lessons for traders as well as exchanges. Never keep all your funds in a trading platform.

[ubercool]

I was going to sign up on it some weeks ago because I was interested in Monacoin, I guess I got lucky. These hacking incidents will damage the whole crypto sphere to grow and exchanges need to be a little more careful.

[Kakmakr]

$60 Million sounds like a lot of money, but for big exchanges like this, it is not really a train smash. They will just have to fork out the capital from their own pockets and pay back these people. A good sign is that the exchange had the rest of their reserves in cold storage and that helped to prevent even larger losses.

This just shows us not to keep large amounts of coins in exchanges, because they are famous for having poor code and not being able to stop these hacks. 

[xtraelv]

$60 Million sounds like a lot of money, but for big exchanges like this, it is not really a train smash. They will just have to fork out the capital from their own pockets and pay back these people. A good sign is that the exchange had the rest of their reserves in cold storage and that helped to prevent even larger losses.

This just shows us not to keep large amounts of coins in exchanges, because they are famous for having poor code and not being able to stop these hacks.  

The exchange added that since its own asset reserve is currently around 2.2 billion yen (or $20 million), it has reached an agreement with a Japan-listed firm called Fisco to receive a $44.5 million investment in exchange for a major share of ownership.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-exchange-zaif-hacked-in-60-million-6000-bitcoin-theft/

It is enough to make them insolvent and sell a big part of their ownership for a bailout.

The exchange first noticed an unusual outflow of funds on the platform around 17:00 Japan time on September 14, after which the company suspended asset deposit and withdrawal services.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-exchange-zaif-hacked-in-60-million-6000-bitcoin-theft/

September 14 was Friday - So they kept it quiet for a week before disclosing it.

[ubay]

Hopefully, this incident will not have a big effect on cryptocurrency, and this incident reminds me of the case of Mt. Gox

[galambo]

Exchange wallets are still big targets for thieves. These thefts make bank heists look small.

Yet another Japan-based cryptocurrency exchange has been hacked, losing a 6.7 billion yen (about $60 million worth of cryptocurrency), including 5,966 bitcoins.

The licensed exchange, called Zaif, is operated by the Tech Bureau. It said on Thursday that the exchange first noticed an unusual outflow of funds on the platform around 17:00 Japan time on September 14, after which the company suspended asset deposit and withdrawal services.

Tech Bureau explained that after further investigation, it discovered that hackers with unauthorized access to the exchange's hot wallets had stolen roughly $60 million in bitcoin, bitcoin cash, and MonaCoin. That being said, the exact amount of bitcoin cash stolen remains unknown.

The exchange added that since its own asset reserve is currently around 2.2 billion yen (or $20 million), it has reached an agreement with a Japan-listed firm called Fisco to receive a $44.5 million investment in exchange for a major share of ownership.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-exchange-zaif-hacked-in-60-million-6000-bitcoin-theft/

That's really a another big hack in the history of the cryptos. Hackers are really growing much more faster and also they are getting really huge funds by hacking such exchanges.

I think a major precaution on it should be taken by most of the exchanges so that the funds for their users are kept safe. None of the user may want his funds to be hacked. This makes peoples like us have less faith in the exchanges.

[xtraelv]

On the same day Greek authorities were arresting Vinnik, a team of researchers that also included Google staffers, presented findings at the Black Hat USA 2017 security conference, revealing that 95 percent of all ransomware ransom payments were cashed out and converted into fiat currency through Vinnik's BTC-e portal.

Also on the same day, a group of Bitcoin security specialists calling themselves WizSec published the results of an investigation that linked Vinnik's Bitcoin accounts to laundering funds stolen from the Mt. Gox exchange.

Researchers said that Vinnik was also involved in laundering funds stolen from other cryptocurrency exchanges, such as Bitcoinica, Bitfloor, and other platforms they did not name at the time.

US authorities said in an indictment that Vinnik's platform helped launder over $4 billion in illegal funds. BTC-e's website, before it went down, claimed to have handled over $7 billion during its lifetime.

Source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/us-loses-extradition-battle-with-russia-for-bitcoin-kingpin/

A lot of people suspect that Vinnik was just the front man or stooge. Looks like he will now be extradited to Russia for minor charges rather than the serious ones he faces in the US and France.

But interesting that so much can be funneled through one exchange.

[nak02]

Sad to hear that though. Many hackers now are taregting some weak exchanges. Hope other exchanges are aware of this. 5,966 Bitcoins is a lot and some other crypto currencies also just like monacoin. Hoping japan can trace that hacker and let them join the team. Haha just kidding.

But I think why almost japan are targeted by the hackers ? What would be the reason behind that?

[darklus123]

Because of the regularity from japan towards crypto is so high users will be having no problem about their funds as they will still have it. Zaif apparently will be having a problem in paying their users from this loss.

Zaif have stated that they will be having a 5 Billion yen loan just to cover up their loses as 4.5 billion yen was from their users funds.

I will also be watching this issue if how are they going to trace addresses where the coins have been sent and what certain places it was slowly been withdrawn.

[Bytem3]

Zaif token price dropped quite a lot after the news came out of $60 million hack :O

[xtraelv]

Zaif token price dropped quite a lot after the news came out of $60 million hack :O

The trading activity on the 18th looks like someone might have known and was dumping some already. There was a slow and steady increase in volume.

[johnwest]

Zaif token price dropped quite a lot after the news came out of $60 million hack :O

The trading activity on the 18th looks like someone might have known and was dumping some already. There was a slow and steady increase in volume.

Yes, it clearly looks like someone from the team or may be an angle investor did know about this and dumped before the thing happened. 
New exchanges has to be very cautious in terms of security.

[beami]

The news is alarming, but the incident on September 14 and it was only discovered, really shocked the holders, the Zaif exchange was not yet great but this news made people afraid of wanting to enter Zaif.
This exchange requires very tight security.

[bartolo]

Centralized exchange, hot wallet and a hack, the song remains the same. It seems incredible that there are still exchanges that keep such a large number of cryptos in hot wallets, it's like playing Russian roulette every day. On the other hand, there is something here that catches my attention. The hack takes place on September 14, but no one knows about it. However, only two or three days later, a company appears and makes an offer, to cover the hole that the attack has left in exchange for a considerable amount of shares of the company. How convenient, right?

[ashaksagnis]

I saw this media this morning. these are very bad news for all of us and again, the question of security of exchanges appears.

[Globalbitcoinl]

if they did not keep their money in ordinary wallets, and wallets with multi-signature, it is possible they are with such a problem and did not face