According to news agency Yonhap, Bithumb will not have to repay a crypto investor who allegedly lost $401,000 as a result of a 2017 data breach suffered by the firm. A High Court judge determined that the man (identified as “Mr. A” for privacy purposes) had failed to successfully prove that his data was compromised during the incident. As a result, the exchange will not be held liable for Mr. A’s lost funds. Mr. A stated that he was holding Korean won (KRW) funds on the exchange and that the data breach had compromised access to his personal information. The …
South Korean police have arrested suspects behind a cryptocurrency ponzi scheme using artificial intelligence (AI), local English-language news outlet Korea Joongang Daily reported on April 8. The scheme, which reportedly stole a total of 21.2 billion won ($18.3 million) over a six-month period in 2018, came to an end after the Seoul Special Judicial Police Bureau for Public Safety trained robots to catch those involved using keywords and other clues. “Through keywords such as Ponzi, loan and recruiting members, we were able to teach the AI patterns of Ponzi schemes,” Hong Nam-ki, section chief of the bureau’s second investigation team, …
South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb has won a lawsuit in which an investor had sued the company for his loss of around $355,000 in an alleged hack. Local financial newspaper The Korea Economic Daily reported on the outcome on Dec. 24. According to the report, the investor — 30 year old civil servant Ahn Park — alleged he had been the victim of a hack of his Bithumb account on Nov. 30, 2017, which resulted in a loss of 400 million Korean won, or around $355,000. Within hours of making his won deposit, Mr. Park alleged an unidentified hacker had …
The South Korean Justice Ministry estimates that cryptocurrency-related crimes have caused 2.69 trillion won (about $2.28 billion) of financial damage between July 2017 and June 2019. According to a July 21 report by English-language local media The Korea Herald, the ministry claimed that 132 cryptocurrency-related criminals and fraudsters had been indicted and detained, with another 288 indicted without physical detention during the aforementioned time frame. The report states that, while Justice Minister Park Sang-kim has ordered stern measures against cryptocurrency criminals, a lack of clear regulations on cryptocurrency exchanges has led to an increase in the use of quasi-anonymous or …
South Korean watchdog the Financial Services Commission (FSC) has urged lawmakers to hasten their approval of the country’s first cryptocurrency bill, Bloomberg reports July 26. Hong Seong-ki, head of the FSC’s virtual currency response team, has reportedly warned of the security and money laundering risks courted by the country’s domestic crypto exchanges. Bloomberg cites Seong-ki as saying that: “While crypto markets have seen rapid growth, such trading platforms don’t seem to be well-enough prepared in terms of security. We’re trying to legislate the most urgent and important things first, aiming for money-laundering prevention [AML] and investor protection. The bill should …