UPDATED 22:27 EDT / SEPTEMBER 20 2018

EMERGING TECH

$59.5M stolen in hack of Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Zaif

Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Zaif is the latest to be hacked, reporting that 6.7 billion yen ($59.5 million) in crypto had been stolen from its service, including 5,966 bitcoins.

The hack occurred on Sept. 14 over a two-hour period but was not detected until Sept. 17, when the exchange started to experience server problems.

In a media release Tuesday, the exchange did not provide details on how the hack took place. It said only that a third-party had accessed its servers via the internet and had stolen bitcoin, Monacoin and Bitcoin Cash from the exchange’s online wallet service.

Of the cryptocurrency stolen, 2.2 billion yen ($19.5 million) belonged to parent company Tech Bureau Corp. while the remaining 4.5 billion yen ($40 million) belonged to customers of the exchange.

The exchange went on to note that it has informed police and Japan’s Financial Services Agency and hired Kaichi Corp., a communications equipment supplier that “makes richness and aspirations come true while focusing on co-existence and co-prosperity with our customers,” to assist it in a forensic investigation of the hack.

The involvement of the FSA is a given when a crypto exchange hack occurs in Japan because exchanges within the country are fully licensed. With that licensing comes minimum standards such as safeguards to avoid being hacked.

Zaif’s hacking comes after Coincheck Inc., another Japanese exchange, was hacked in January with about $400 million in NEM tokens being stolen.

Sixteen Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges joined forces in February to create an industry body in response to the Coincheck hack, the FSA launched an audit of licensed exchanges at the same time. In June the FSA report found multiple issues and six licensed exchanges were ordered to reform their business practices. Tech Bureau, the parent company of Zaif, was one of them.

Bravenewcoin reported at the time that “this is the second time … that Tech Bureau has been ordered to reform its business practices, with the first request occurring on March 8th. During regular checks on the status of improvements, the FSA recognized found that Tech Bureau’s management had not responded appropriately to recurring system failures and frequent complaints.”

Tech Bureau has promised to compensate all affected users and is in the process of selling a majority stake in the company to Fisco Ltd. to raise funds to do so.

Image: Zaif

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