Photo: Matt Kieffer / Wikimedia Commons
South Korean cryptocurrency exchange GOPAX halted withdrawals and trading Friday after receiving a hacking threat. Standard withdrawals and deposits stopped at 2:55 p.m. Seoul time (12:55 a.m. ET), and trading was halted at 3:53 p.m. (1:53 a.m. ET), with all existing open orders canceled.
The exchange said the steps are a precaution after it received a threatening email from a group claiming responsibility for a hack. No losses of customer assets have been reported.
“To ensure the safe custody of user assets, we plan to transfer all virtual assets to cold wallets for storage,” GOPAX said. Cold wallets are disconnected from the internet, making them harder to reach in an attack. The transfer was announced as under way; it has not been independently confirmed as complete.
Standard withdrawals through GOPAX’s website and app are unavailable, but customers can still apply for withdrawals through the exchange’s customer support center. Those requests are processed manually, one by one, after internal verification and approval, so processing may take longer than usual.
In September, GOPAX said abnormal access to some user accounts led to a leak of information belonging to seven customers and two current or former employees. Any link between that breach and the latest threat has not been confirmed.
The incident follows a string of cybersecurity cases in South Korea’s financial sector: the Financial Services Commission has confirmed incidents at 37 financial institutions affecting roughly 470,000 customer records.
JBizNews Desk | Seoul
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