{
  "id": 16850628,
  "title": "Bithumb hacked through employee system as South Korean financial firms face cyberattacks",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/28/bithumb-hacked-through-employee-system-as-south-korean-financial",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-28T05:10:36.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "CoinDesk",
    "slug": "coindesk",
    "url": "https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2026/10/28/bithumb-hacked-through-employee-system-as-south-korean-financial-firms-face-cyberattacks"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Bithumb, South Korea's second-largest crypto exchange, disclosed on Wednesday that an external hacker breached its internal mobile system used by employees for communication and collaboration. Personal data was reportedly accessed, although no cryptocurrency funds were reported as lost as of the Asian afternoon. Bithumb, which is the largest exchange in South Korea by trading volumes, reported the intrusion to the Korea Internet & Security Agency and the Personal Information Protection Commission on Tuesday. The exchange informed Yonhap that they were currently analyzing the full extent of the breach, including the potential exposure of member information. They stated that the compromised system operates independently from their trading platform, ensuring that customer virtual assets remained unaffected. It remains unclear whether deposit or withdrawal functions were impacted, or how many individuals had their data compromised. Bithumb was among three financial institutions that the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) was investigating on Wednesday. Daishin Securities reported that personal and credit information of 38,490 customers was leaked in an external attack, while Mirae Asset Global Investments blocked abnormal access to certain web systems and confirmed that investor data remained secure. Financial Supervisory Service Governor Lee Chan-jin acknowledged that several major financial firms had experienced hacking incidents earlier in the week, with a total of 16 South Korean financial firms affected as of October 14. This marks the second cyberattack on Bithumb's security measures within the same year. In February, the exchange mistakenly credited customers with 620,000 BTC, worth over $40 billion at the time, instead of 620,000 won. CEO Lee Jae-won attributed the error to insufficient internal controls, emphasizing that the exchange is fully aware of the deficiency in system safeguards.",
  "summary": "The breach hit an internal employee system that Bithumb says is separate from its trading platform, while the exchange is still determining whether customer information was exposed.",
  "key_points": [
    "Bithumb's internal mobile system breached by external hacker",
    "Personal data accessed, no cryptocurrency funds lost",
    "Financial Supervisory Service investigating three South Korean firms"
  ],
  "editors_take": "Targeting internal communication tools rather than trading platforms signals a shift toward exploiting employee systems to bypass the robust security layers protecting digital assets.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Yonhap News",
        "title": "(LEAD) South Korean financial firms confirm data breach of customer data",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/28/lead-south-korean-financial-firms-confirm-data-breach-of-customer-data",
        "published": "2026-10-28T01:12:54.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}