Data Backup Digest

As more investors begin to view modern cryptocurrency as a viable trading option, cryptocurrency brokers are struggling to keep pace with the new accounts. In fact, a recent data breach – affecting more than 800 million users of the popular cryptocurrency exchange, Coinmama – serves as an early reminder of some of the risks involved with this new trend.

Multiple Incidents and a Lot of Confusion

Cryptocurrency exchanges aren't 100% protected from viruses, malware, or malicious computer users – and nobody expects them to be. The latest incident with Coinmama, which took place in mid-February 2019, isn't even the first time something like this has happened. However, with so many experts touting cryptocurrency as the next big thing, it's important to consider such risks.

The latest incident involving Coinmama actually consists of two separate events. Firstly, officials with Coinmama were notified of a list of emails and hashed passwords that were uploaded to the dark web on February 15, 2019. Although the initial incident was limited to approximately 450,000 accounts, it was only the beginning.

Much to Coinmama's dismay, the hacker made another attack on February 17 – just two days later. This event gave them unauthorized access to another 1.4 million accounts. It's important to note that all of this stems from an initial fraud investigation surrounding separate events that took place in December 2018.

The Final Tallies

In all, the data breach affects 30 different companies and a total of 841 million users. Some additional hacked sites include MyFitnessPal, Coffee Meets Bagel, Roll20, Gfycat, ClassPass, StreetEasy, and more. While the hacker's identity is currently unknown, experts believe that they're dealing with a professional.

According to Ariel Ainhoren, a leading researcher with IntSights, "Most of these sites were not known breaches, it seems we’re dealing here with a hacker that did the hacks by himself, and not just someone who obtained it from somewhere else and now just resold it."

In their official press release, Coinmama offered some helpful tips to users who may be affected by the latest incidents. For starters, they're recommending that all users who signed up with their site prior to August 5, 2017 change their passwords immediately. Coinmama requires all passwords to at least eight characters in length with a combination of uppercase and lowercase numbers as well as numbers and symbols for maximum protection.

In addition, Coinmama is reminding users to ignore any suspicious or unexpected communications that ask for their personal data and to avoid downloading attachments from any unknown emails. Hackers and other malicious users often try to take advantage of situations like this to execute their own attacks or scams, so it's important for Coinmama users to be extra diligent during this time.

Coinmama is also taking several steps to increase their site's security. Apart from the required password changes, they've allocated extra resources to monitoring their systems and adding continuous enhancements as technology continues to evolve. They're also notifying individual users whose accounts have been compromised. For more information on this or any of the services they provide, please visit their official website at {{https://www.coinmama.com|www.coinmama.com}}.