BTC-Alpha suffered a ransomware attack

Risk to Business: 1.512= Severe

This week’s most bizarre breach saga belongs to BTC-Alpha. The UK-based cryptocurrency exchange was hit with a ransomware attack in early November. The Lockbit ransomware group claimed responsibility and posted a threat to its leak site to expose BTC-Alpha’s data if a ransom was not paid by December 1. Here’s where it gets strange. Alpha founder and CEO Vitalii Bodnar alleged the attack was the work of a competing cryptocurrency firm in a press release on the same day that Lockbit’s announcement was made. The release goes on to state that a rival was launching a cryptocurrency exchange on the same day as the attack and may be involved in the incident. The full text of the release is available here: https://www.prleap.com/pr/282919/vitaliy-bodnar-founder-of-btc-alpha-comments-on-the-pressure-and-threats The company disclosed that although hashed passwords were compromised, users’ balances were not impacted, and the company and its users lost no money. The company also advised users to avoid password reuse, update or reinstall their apps, and employ MFA. The odd incident is under investigation.