Crypto lovers often head on to the prominent price-tracking space for digital assets, CoinMarketCap. The platform has been quite popular amongst the members of the crypto-verse. However, a recent hack that took place earlier this month on the firm put millions of its customers at risk.
The crypto market is not new to hacks or scams. The popularity of the crypto market not only lured in legit investors but also opened doors to perpetrators to were in to bag easy money through illicit means. Data theft has become a major problem. Throughout the years, hackers were seen eyeing the data of prominent companies.
CoinMarketCap underwent a similar hack on 12 October 2021 where 3.1 million user email addresses were compromised. However, this wasn’t discovered immediately.
CoinMarketCap’s big data theft
Recently, a website that monitors hacks, Have I Been Pwned, revealed that the email addresses stolen from the price-tracking website were being traded online.
CoinMarketCap affirmed that there was no data leak from the firm’s servers. This meant that the passwords of the users were still safe. However, following the latest revelation, it was the firm reinforced that the list surfacing online had matched its userbase. The platform stated,
“CoinMarketCap has become aware that batches of data have shown up online purporting to be a list of user accounts. While the data lists we have seen are only email addresses (no passwords), we have found a correlation with our subscriber base. “
Additionally, the platform assured its users that the root of the hack was being investigated. Users would hear from the firm following a discovery in the probe.
Furthermore, the platform seemed to be confident that the leak wasn’t from the CoinMarketCap servers. The platform pointed out that a “comprehensive security check” had been run and no traces of a security breach was noted in its servers.
While CoinMarketCap has always played a prominent role in the crypto industry, its latest partnership with Binance certainly bolstered the prominence of the firm. The crypto-based platform currently stands as a subsidiary of Changpeng Zhao’s Binance.