U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex has suffered a data leak and is enforcing a mandatory password change for all its users to prevent hackers from gaining access to their accounts.
Poloniex Is Warning All Its Users
This seems to happen a lot in the crypto world. Either it’s people’s money that’s vulnerable, or it’s their private data. Either way, it looks like Poloniex has put out a message to all its customers demanding that they change their passwords immediately to prevent cyberthieves from taking advantage of the breach.
The email being sent out reads as such:
While almost all of the email addresses listed do not belong to the Poloniex accounts, we are forcing a password reset on any email addresses that do have an account with us, including yours.
The verbiage in the message caused some to believe that it was all part of a phishing scam, including one Twitter user who goes by the name “Charly Satoshi.” The user later posted the message to the social media platform and asked if anyone else had received the email as well. Poloniex staff members reacted quickly by explaining in a statement:
This is a real email! Please reset your password for account security.
This isn’t the first data breach to occur with a crypto platform. Last August, encrypted messaging service Telegram – which has recently issued its new “gram” cryptocurrency token through an initial coin offering (ICO) – claimed that a dangerous bug had been discovered that was causing various accounts to leak the phone numbers of their owners.
This was particularly dangerous it that it was claimed the Chinese government was utilizing the bug as a means of uncovering the identities of protesters. Hong Kong was the subject of widespread unrest as its native people demanded a democratic government separate from the Chinese mainland. It was later confirmed that government officials had already managed to pinpoint specific persons.
Local software engineer Chu Ka-Cheong later tweeted:
Need help from @telegram. We and multiple teams have independently confirmed a serious vulnerability that causes phone numbers to be leaked to members in public groups, regardless of the privacy setting. Telegram is heavily used in #hkprotest. It puts HKers in immediate threats.
Keep Yourself Safe!
Another security breach occurred last November involving popular cryptocurrency platform BitMEX. It was announced that several users’ email addresses had potentially been exposed on Twitter. The good news is that nothing came of the event and customers’ money remained safely in their accounts.
In an ironic twist, Poloniex had officially released guidance regarding how people could enable two-factor authentication (2FA) on their accounts the day the data breach occurred. The company had announced that adding an extra layer of security was necessary to prevent future crime and account compromises.
