Biggest Bitcoin theft: Coinsecure's bitcoins worth Rs. 20 crore stolen
In arguably India's largest cryptocurrency theft so far, the wallets of a leading bitcoin exchange company in Delhi were hacked and 440 bitcoins worth Rs. 20 crore were stolen. The firm, Coinsecure, which has over two lakh customers nationwide, found out about the theft on Monday while inspecting all the wallets, reported Times of India. Read on for more.
Coinsecure's private keys were leaked online
Incidentally, all the bitcoins stored offline have been stolen. The private keys, which is essentially a password the firm saves offline, were reportedly leaked and had been online for over 12 hours, resulting in the hack. Since all the data logs of the compromised wallets had been erased and trails removed, Coinsecure couldn't trace the hackers. Its website has been shut ever since.
Bitcoins extracted to distribute to customers, alleges Coinsecure
Coinsecure informed its users about the hack on Thursday night through a message on its website. "Our bitcoin funds have been exposed and seem to have been siphoned out to an address outside our control. Our system has never been compromised or hacked, and the current issue points towards losses caused during an exercise to extract bitcoins to distribute to customers," the message said.
Firm's CEO suspects internal foul play
Police have seized Coinsecure's servers to check for malware infection and assess the extent of the system breach. They have called the firm's senior security officials for interrogation and are inspecting if other wallets have been compromised. Coinsecure's founding-CEO Mohit Kalra has assured to compensate his customers from his own pocket in case the bitcoins aren't recovered.
Coinsecure registers FIR against its Chief Security Officer
Meanwhile, Kalra told TOI he suspected internal foul play. The cryptocurrency exchange has registered an FIR accusing its Chief Security Officer Amitabh Saxena of stealing the money from the company's wallet. Fearing that Saxena may want to flee the country, Coinsecure has urged the government to seize his passport.
