Bitfinex Suffers Minor Information Security Breach

In a November 4 statement, cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex stated that it had suffered a minor information security attack. 

Accordingly, Bitfinex explained that the hacker was only able to gain access to partial and stale information. The incident was a result of an attack launched against one of its customer support agents between October 30th and November 5th.

“A small portion of our customer support boards, which held partial, incomplete, and stale information was accessed by an individual or group, through the phishing of a customer support agent who did not have senior permissions and therefore had only limited access to supporting tools and helpdesk tickets,” per the published Bitfinex statement.

No System Compromise in Bitfinex Attack

Moving forward, the crypto firm emphasized that none of its systems were compromised, nor were passwords tampered with. As such, no customer fund was lost to the security incident. 

Also, the hacker did not gain access to Bitfinex server, wallet, or any of its database infrastructure. However, the company mentioned that some customers were affected, although their accounts were either empty or inactive.

Law Enforcement Agencies Set in Motion

The exchange claims to have a cordial relationship with key authorities and in effect, law enforcement agencies have been contacted to look into the breach. They plan to nab the perpetrator and make him pay for his crime. Currently, Bitfinex is in the process of reaching out to all affected customers.

Noteworthy, Bitfinex boasted of its track record of ensuring that bad actors who attack the platform are brought to book. 

Bitfinex Nabs Couple Scammers 

This was seen last year when Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Morgan, tried to negotiate a lesser plea deal with the crypto exchange. In 2016, Lichtenstein and his wife orchestrated an attack that led to the loss of $72 million at the time. By the time of their arrest, the valuation of the stolen assets had risen to a whopping $4.5 billion. 

Consequently, the duo was charged with money laundering and for conducting over 2,000 unlawful transactions. The scam shook the crypto ecosystem to the point that Netflix had to release a documentary to that effect. In the long run, the couple agreed to plead guilty to the charges levied against them.