Crypto exchanges’ user info reportedly for sale on Dark Web

A hacker on the Dark Web claims to possess personal information on users of several popular cryptocurrency exchanges, and is selling the data at wholesale prices.

CCN reported that the hacker, going by the “ExploitDOT” handle, has had the advertisement for their services up since July 2018. Among the changes they claim to have accessed the information of are Bittrex, Poloniex, Bitfinex, and Binance.

The ad states that the information being sold was “dumped not alot of time ago,” and is of users “for EVERY country” but not organized. “Since those are all in a mega folder, The country is not choosable, but You will get atleast some of every country with every order higher than 1k docs,” the ad reads.

The information being sold includes selfies, documents, and proofs of address, used for identity confirmation.

Prices vary according to volume of purchase, from as much as $10 for every hundred documents, to $1 for each thousand documents for orders of over 25,000 documents, with up to 100,000 documents for sale.

According to CCN, a cybersecurity expert who requested anonymity confirmed the authenticity of sample documents sent by the vendor. The samples included pictures of purported users each holding up a paper with “Binance” written on it, along with a date.

However, when contacted for comment, Binance, through a spokesperson, was said to not detect any breaches of their system, and maintained that there were inconsistencies in the data it had been presented on the matter.

Bittrex, along with Coinbase Pro, have been classified as low insurance risks by cybersecurity firm Group-IB and Swiss insurance broker ASPIS SA, who assigned the two a 1.5% premium over 90 days. Poloniex, Binance, and Bitfinex were ranked in the next best group of exchanges, with a 1.9% premium.

The Dark Web has helped spread the notion that cryptocurrencies are for illicit transactions. But the closure of the Silk Road marketplace in 2013, and growing awareness of the practical uses of blockchain, has done a great deal to correct such a notion.

nChain Chief Scientist Dr. Craig Wright sees the future of cryptocurrency, specifically Bitcoin SV, as providing transparency of transactions without sacrificing privacy.

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