Zaif (cryptocurrency exchange)

History

2018: Hackers stole $60 million from the exchange

In September, 2018 the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Zaif  was attacked by hackers who as a result of attack managed to steal about $60 million.

According to the Financial Times newspaper with reference to the operator of the Tech Bureau exchange,  the platform was attacked from 17 on 19 h on September 14. Criminals stole from the Zaif exchange about 4.5 billion yens in bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies which belonged to clients, and 2.2 billion yens belonging to the company. Thus, the general losses of marketplace exceeded 6.7 billion yens, i.e. about $59.7 million at the rate of for September 20.

The Zaif exchange from Japan was robbed for $60 million

Means were stolen from a so-called "hot purse" (hot wallet is the certain address which is constantly connected to the Internet using which the owner can perform operations with the means at any time). Usually cryptocurrency exchanges keep the majority of the assets on offline "cold purses" which hackers cannot reach.

The edition calls the incident the next blow to reputation of the Japanese Agency of financial services (  Financial Services Agency, FSA) which created a boom in the market of trade in cryptocurrencies, having permitted to work as tens of the exchanges. However the finance regulator could not ensure their safety. Upon big plunders on Zaif the agency carries out an inspection.

It is known that the exchange recorded suspicious activity only three days later after the attack. At first the company noticed an error of servers and suspended operations on input and output of means, and next day, having understood that there was a cyber attack, it notified on it the regulator and the public.

Zaif said that compensations in a complete size will be paid to affected users. For this purpose the exchange attracted the investor on behalf of Fisco Digital Asset Group  which agreed to cover losses in exchange for a platform controlling stake.

In 2017 in Japan adopted the law which made cryptocurrencies official settlement means. According to law enforcement agencies, unknown hackers by direct computer cracking only  for 2017 stole  in Japan cryptocurrencies for $6.3 million^[1]

Notes