General Bytes, a manufacturer of Bitcoin ATMs, has announced that it will reimburse its cloud-hosted customers who suffered financial losses due to a security incident earlier this year. Cryptopolitan previously reported that an attacker was able to access passwords, private keys, and funds from hot wallets hosted by General Bytes between March 17 and 18. The ATM manufacturer detailed the attack in a post-incident report on March 23 and has since moved quickly to provide reparations for its customers.
General Bytes released a statement saying, “We have taken swift action to stop any further unauthorized access to our systems and are doing everything we can to protect our customers.” It is believed that the attack resulted in at least 56 Bitcoin (BTC) worth over $1.5 million and 21.82 Ether (ETH) worth approximately $37,000 being sent to wallets associated with the hacker. The company has extensively investigated the impact of the breach and is continuing to work hard to improve security protocols and prevent similar events from occurring in the future.
In addition to reimbursing impacted customers, General Bytes is also urging all customers to transition to a self-hosted server installation with virtual private network (VPN) technology. The company is investing heavily in additional human resources to support the process of migrating existing systems. Moreover, most ATM operators using self-hosted server installations with VPN technology were not affected by the hack.
On March 18, General Bytes issued a patch release bulletin initially warning customers of a possible hacker attack. As a precautionary measure, the ATM manufacturer has shut down its cloud services. In an official statement, the Prague-based company expressed its commitment to protecting customer data and funds: “We apologize for any inconvenience caused and remain committed to serving our customers with integrity and professionalism.” Since its establishment, General Bytes has sold over 15,000 Bitcoin ATMs to buyers in 149 countries worldwide.
