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Bithumb hacked through employee system as South Korean financial firms face cyberattacks
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Bithumb, South Korea’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, said Wednesday that an outsider breached an internal employee mobile system and stole personal information. The exchange reported no cryptocurrency fund losses as of Asian afternoon hours. It insisted the compromised system is separate from its trading platform and customer assets cannot be accessed through it.
The breach follows a difficult year for Bithumb’s internal controls. In February, it mistakenly credited customers with 620,000 bitcoin, worth more than $40 billion then, instead of 620,000 won. CEO Lee Jae-won blamed weak internal controls and said the exchange was “acutely aware of the deficiency in internal system control.”
Bithumb discovered the intrusion Tuesday and reported it to the Korea Internet & Security Agency and the Personal Information Protection Commission, Korean media said. It told Yonhap it was analyzing the exact scope, “including the possibility of member information being involved.” The exchange has not disclosed how many people were affected or whether deposits and withdrawals were disrupted.
The breached platform is an internal mobile system employees use to work and message each other, not the exchange’s trading engine. Bithumb says that separation limits access to customer virtual assets. However, stolen employee credentials or personal data could still enable follow-on phishing or social-engineering attacks.
The incident is part of a wider wave of cyberattacks targeting South Korean financial companies. The Financial Supervisory Service said Wednesday it was assessing Bithumb and two other financial firms. Daishin Securities reported that personal and credit information for 38,490 customers leaked in an outside attack, while Mirae Asset Global Investments said it blocked abnormal access and investor information was unaffected.
“I understand that major financial investment companies experienced overall hacking incidents yesterday,” FSS Governor Lee Chan-jin told a meeting with bank holding company chairs. Earlier this month, he said cyberattacks had hit 16 South Korean firms as of Oct. 14. The disclosures suggest attackers are probing both crypto exchanges and traditional finance, where credentials are valuable.
Bithumb is still analyzing the scope of the breach and whether member information was involved. Regulators are likely to press the exchange for clearer timelines, disclosure, and remediation. The company may also face renewed scrutiny over internal controls and employee-system access.
The case highlights how crypto exchanges remain high-value targets even when trading funds are isolated. South Korea’s large crypto market makes lapses costly for trust. Operational and data security can matter as much as blockchain safeguards.
