The Chief Technology Officer of Bitfinex, Paolo Ardoino, has dismissed rumors of a recent database exploit at the popular crypto exchange.
Several reports over the weekend suggested that 22,500 records of emails and passwords belonging to Bitfinex users had been leaked. However, Ardoino took to Twitter to express his belief that the alleged breach was likely fake. He clarified that only a small portion of the leaked information matched actual exchange users, and reassured the public that Bitfinex does not store plaintext passwords or 2FA secrets in clear text.
Ardoino also questioned the legitimacy of the hackers’ claims, pointing out that they had not contacted the exchange directly. The hackers announced the breach on April 25, but Bitfinex only became aware of it one day before the deadline.
In response, Ardoino stated, “Different security researchers rushed to hype the breach. Yet from what we could gather, the hackers collected a database of emails/passwords likely from different crypto breaches. Most of users unfortunately use same email/passwords across multiple sites.”
Despite the initial panic caused by the rumors, Alice from Shinoji Research, one of the accounts that originally spread the database leak claim, has since retracted the statement. They revealed that the hackers had curated a list of Bitfinex logins from other breaches and made the situation appear like a ransom demand for a major breach.
Alice further explained that the hackers exploited the rumor to attract potential investors for future hacks, rather than being related to the real FLocker group from a few years ago.
While Bitfinex continues to investigate the situation, Ardoino has pledged to leave no stone unturned in ensuring the security of the exchange’s users.
