Australian-based crypto exchange BTC Markets has exposed the names and email addresses of all its users on blast emails sent to its clients on Tuesday.
December 2, 2020 | AtoZ Markets – Australia’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, BTC Markets has accidentally exposed the names and email addresses of its users in a marketing email.
Earlier today, an announcement from BTC Markets exposed client names and email addresses. This is a deeply regrettable situation and we apologise wholeheartedly for it.
— BTC Markets (@BTCMarkets) December 1, 2020
BTC Markets uses a third-party service for mailing. A promotional letter with personal data was sent to 1000 user addresses.
What was our response?
— BTC Markets (@BTCMarkets) December 1, 2020
Account-holders had their name and email address exposed. The process took place very quickly, therefore it was not possible to stop the batch send once the error was realised.
“The process was very fast, so once the error was detected, it was impossible to stop the batch sending,” BTC Markets said.
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BTC Markets users’ passwords not compromised
Representatives of the exchange said that the passwords from the accounts were not compromised. However, BTC Markets, with more than 270,000 crypto traders on-board have encouraged users to activate two-factor authentication (2FA) and change email access.
The trading platform promised to report the incident to the Australian Information Commissioner’s Office and conduct an internal audit.
BTC Markets CEO Caroline Bowler urged exchange users to be vigilant, warning of possible phishing attacks. The day before the incident, she announced her appointment as a member of the board of the national blockchain association.
Recall that in November, an unknown person gained access to account and domain management of the Liquid cryptocurrency exchange. However, the company has said customers’ funds are safe.
Earlier, the leak of personal information of a million users was reported by the manufacturer of hardware wallets Ledger.
What do you make of the BTC Markets privacy breach? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.