Crypto exchange Huobi has fixed its data breach after a massive data leak that allegedly put users’ funds at risk since June 2021. The data leak had information on almost all the over-the-counter (OTC) transaction information from 2017 to 2021, with some of the data being VIP user data and information on the technical infrastructure of the exchange.
Huobi risked exposure of its sensitive information
White hat hacker and citizen journalist Aaron Phillips disclosed the Huobi data breach. The white hacker explained that an attacker exploiting Huobi’s vulnerability would have had the opportunity to achieve the largest crypto theft in history. Anyone accessing the exchange’s credentials could have changed their domains, including hbfile.net and huobi.com. In addition, their internal documents and user data could be exposed.
According to previous reports, the company handles over a billion dollars daily in trading volume. Hence, users’ accounts and crypto assets would have been stolen if they hadn’t taken action to fix the leak. Phillips emphasized the potential for malicious scripts to be injected into Huobi’s content delivery networks (CDNs) and websites. According to him, the CDNs might have compromised all Huobi login pages, possibly harming anyone who used a Huobi website or app over the previous two years.
The exchange risks exposure to sensitive information, including the contact information and account balances of cryptocurrency users, and it puts customers at risk of losing their accounts and crypto assets. According to Phillips, this includes Huobi’s over-the-counter (OTC) trade data as well as a database of cryptocurrency whales. He confirmed, however, that no breach was carried out using the data leak.
Huobi fixes data breach
According to the exchange, which confirmed the occurrence, it was caused by the appropriate staff members’ irregular conduct in the S3 barrel of the Japanese station’s test environment. On October 8, 2022, all pertinent user data was isolated.
The exchange asserted that the leakage was small-scale, involving 4,960 individuals. It added that the leaked information did not have sensitive information and never affected user accounts and the security of their assets.
Huobi further stated that the Huobi Japanese and Huobi Global sites are separate entities. On June 21, 2023, the Huobi Security Team immediately took action after being alerted by a white hat team, instantly closing the associated file access permissions. According to the exchange, the issue has been resolved, and all associated user data has been removed. Huobi has since deleted the affected account, and no users are at risk anymore.
Despite the issue being resolved now, Phillips mentioned that it took months for the exchange to respond, and the leaked data remained online even after he gave Huobi the first notice in June 2022.
Crypto exchanges are prone to data breaches since they have access to a lot of customer data that can be used to steal funds by hackers. Coinsquare, a Canadian crypto exchange, suffered a data breach in November 2022. Its users’ information was exposed, such as phone numbers, names of investors, birth dates, public wallet addresses, and transaction history. However, the exchange affirmed that there were no passwords accessed, and the information is yet to be detected by bad actors.
Gemini Exchange also experienced a data breach that saw 5.7 million users stolen and leaked on hacking forums. Posts advertising the data from the breach first surfaced in September last year, with the data offered for 30 BTC, about $520,000. The same data was posted in November, offering the data and additional data from other exchanges. In another forum, later on, the data was offered for free. Gemini has since asked its clients to implement two-factor authentication and use hardware security keys to prevent hacking and accessing their funds.
