A South Korean judge has ordered the crypto exchange Bithumb to pay a portion of the claims filed by one of the victims of its 2017 hack. The judge ruled that the crypto exchange was partially responsible for the data breach. The Seoul Central District Court ruled that the Bithumb and the claimant, only known as Jang, were both partly responsible for the data breach. According to the court, the exchange could have directed more resources towards its security systems to prevent the hack.
The court orders Bithumb to pay a portion of the claims.
According to a local news outlet Fn News report, the hackers reportedly called Jang, impersonating a Bithumb customer center agent following the data breach. They provided Jang with information that only a Bithumb employee would have access to, such as name, phone number, the digital currencies, and wallet balances. The hackers had allegedly informed Jang that there was an attempt to log in to his account from overseas. He was asked to provide a verification number sent to his number, which the hackers used to take control of his Bithumb account.
“Jang was partly responsible for the hack.”
The court ruled that Jang was partly responsible for the hack as he provided details to the hackers that were not available from the stolen data, such as the verification code. The South Korean crypto exchange must pay Jang $5,050, the court ruled, a much lower value from his initial $27,000 claim. The ruling came days after police reportedly raided the exchange’s offices in Korea’s Gangnam District. As reported earlier, the raid was in connection to an investigation on Lee Jung Hoon, the chairman of the board at Bithumb Korea, for allegedly transferring assets overseas without proper authorization.
