The latest breaking cryptocurrency news show that one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, BitMEX, may have just leaked all of its user emails by forgetting to use blind copy (BCC) on a mass email list. The BitMEX leak is all over many crypto news sites and the incident was also acknowledged by the executives at the exchange, which published an official statement.
The statement was published on November 1 and shows that the editorial team of BitMEX in Japan have independently revealed that a staff member was the recipient of the BitMEX newsletter that we are talking about.
The BitMEX leak occurred after a tweet posted on November 1 by the crypto oriented lawyer Jake Chervinsky characterized BitMEX and its accidental public sharing of user email data as a simple error that is committed in the “outrageously incompetent way imaginable.”
BitMEX just doxxed its users in the most outrageously incompetent way imaginable: forgetting to use blind copy on mass email. Someone must be cleaning out their desk already. https://t.co/KmARzImxnk
— Jake Chervinsky (@jchervinsky) November 1, 2019
Concerned by the tweet, community members pointed out that this is a BitMEX leak and that it makes account holders vulnerable targets to potential hackers, with the data from the exchange serving as a “puzzle piece” for attackers.
Some even voiced their concern that the nature of the error could mean that each email address includes just a section of the total leaked data. “While most people received about 1,000 [other user emails] per email — they dumped their *entire* user database,” users wrote.
On Twitter, the “kevin mcsheetan” outlined the risks and included the following potential for the following:
“all email addresses x-referenced w/ public breaches to associate universal passwords. from there attackers will use xx,xxx proxies to try to break into email inboxes, exchange accounts, github, dropbox, etc.”
The BitMEX leak also hit the exchange pretty bad, which is why they issued a statement, saying:
“Our team have acted immediately to contain the issue and we are taking steps to understand the extent of the impact. Rest assured that we are doing everything we can to identify the root cause of the fault and we will be in touch with any users affected by the issue.”
⚠️We are aware of a large-scale user email leak from another exchange.⚠️
If you are one of the affected users and you also have a Binance account under the same email address, we recommend changing your email immediately using the below steps:https://t.co/sgEr5sqleg
— Binance (@binance) November 1, 2019
The exchange also noted that the privacy of their users “is a top priority” and advised all of the affected BitMEX users who also hold an account on Binance to change their account email immediately because of the BitMEX leak which may spread even more.
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