Major Australian cryptocurrency exchange BTC Markets accidentally exposed the full name and email addresses of all of its customers in a marketing email sent to each affected individual on Dec. 1. The emails were sent in batches of 1,000, meaning that each customer was sent the name and email address of 999 other users. BTC Markets is in the process of reporting the incident to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, with Bowler noting the exchange will be “taking guidance from the OAIC” on how to respond to the breach moving forward. Speaking to Cointelegraph, BTC Markets CEO Caroline …

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse believes his company can still thrive under a hypothetical scenario where XRP is declared a security by United States lawmakers. Appearing on episode 439 of the Pomp Podcast, Garlinghouse talked about the implications of XRP being declared a security by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. He said such a position would run contrary to the prevailing view among G20 markets. While acknowledging that “it’s very hard to look at XRP as a security,” Garlinghouse said: “You know if XRP were deemed a security here in the United States that, you know, we have …

On June 19, 2020, Ethereum increased its gas limit by 25% from 10 million to 12.5 million. In no less than two days, this newfound capacity was used up, bringing the block use right back to 100%. This cat-and-mouse game between a higher gas limit and a surge in use has occurred the last three times Ethereum has raised its gas limit. There is evidently a genuine market demand to use Ethereum, but the gas prices are prohibitively expensive for most use cases. This is where Ethereum 2.0 comes in. What does Ethereum 2.0 bring to the table? In a …

Crypto analytics firm CipherTrace announced on Friday that it had filed two patents for technology capable of tracing transactions for privacy coin Monero (XMR). In a Friday blog from CipherTrace, the firm states that the patents would include forensic tools to explore Monero transaction flows to assist in financial investigations, statistical and probabilistic methods for scoring transactions and clustering likely wallet owners, as well as visualization tools and ways to track stolen or illegally used XMR. “CipherTrace’s Monero tracing capabilities will allow [Virtual Asset Service Providers] to identify when inbound XMR may have criminal origins, allowing them to adequately risk …

Decentralized finance continues to make its impact on the crypto market, and with over $13 billion of total value of assets locked, DeFi projects are clearly resonating with eager crypto investors. Yet while the DeFi space has been progressing over the last year, a number of illegitimate projects have come to fruition, reminding some of the 2017 ICO boom and its subsequent bust. For example, Harvest Finance, a major decentralized protocol, was recently hacked. The attacker made away with $24 million from Harvest Finance pools. Most recently, Value DeFi, the decentralized finance protocol, fell victim to a $6-million flash loan …

Jay Clayton, who has served as the chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission since May 2017, will be leaving the agency by 2021. In its official news release, the agency noted that Clayton has been one of its longest-standing chairs. Crypto enthusiasts will likely be familiar with the agency's work, whose activities have engaged some of the most controversial regulatory questions facing the new asset class. These include early debates as to whether or not certain crypto assets should be defined as a security in accordance with the 71-year-old Howey Test. As chairman, Clayton also warned Bitcoin …

One often hears blockchain in the same breath as security and supply chains. This week, a winning entry to a competition organized by the United States Department of Defense cast both these aspects in a new light. To keep pace with the ever-more technologized battlelines of contemporary warfare, the DoD continues to explore ways to innovate the manufacturing process and supply chain for weaponry and infrastructure in use by the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy. The Advanced Manufacturing Olympics, held virtually this year on Oct. 20–23, sought to recruit traditional DoD contractors, technology developers and academics to mobilize new …

A recent report from Cer Live, a crypto exchange ranking platform, indicated that 14 of the top 25 decentralized exchanges, or DEXs, scored poorly in terms of cybersecurity. The report looked at a variety of unique problems that most DEXs face, including fake token listings, the prevalence of slippage, delays in transaction confirmation, and a lack of data about listed trading pairs. They also looked at whether each exchange had undergone security audits, offered bounties to incentivize the public discovery of bugs, ensured adequate end-to-end security, and more. The assessment then allocated a score ranging between 1 - 10 based …

OpenZeppelin, a blockchain software company known for developing one of the most used implementations of the Ethereum ERC-20 contract, announced on Tuesday the release of a developer suite called Defender. The tool helps automate many of the development operations associated with running Ethereum-based decentralized apps. It provides a simple dashboard to manage upgrades and admin operations for existing smart contracts, which can help developers keep track of changes. Other features include a transaction relayer that simplifies integrations with web-based back ends, automated tasks like logging or oracle updates, and a general knowledge base of best practices in development. The company …

One of the first audits of a decentralized finance project connected with the Polkadot (DOT) blockchain is set to be carried out by blockchain security firm Quantstamp. The project, Equilibrium, had first announced its plans to develop an interoperable protocol on Polkadot in summer of this year. For its transition to Polkadot, the project has been developing new products for its decentralized, cross-chain money market, such as interoperable stablecoins, a synthetic asset platform, and a decentralized exchange. Equilibrium has emphasized that Quantstamp's security audit will be much further-reaching than typical audits, which focus on detecting bugs in smart contracts only. …

A ransomware attack targeting the government systems of Georgia’s Hall County also impacted key voting infrastructure it has been revealed. Local officials initially released few details regarding the Oct. 7 attack, stating that “critical systems within the Hall County Government networks” had been affected. Today, CNN reported the incident “may be the first ransomware attack to hit election infrastructure this political season.” According to Hall County spokesperson Katie Crumley, the county’s voter signature database and voting precinct map were heavily impacted by the attack. However, Crumley noted the county is in the process of bringing affected systems back online, including …

Hackers compromised Telegram messenger and email accounts of multiple cryptocurrency executives last month by exploiting a vulnerability in a decades-old protocol. The fraudsters are believed to have been trying to intercept two-factor authentication codes of victims in an attack on Israel-based telecommunications provider Partner Communications Company, formerly known as Orange Israel. The attacks are currently being investigated by Israel’s National Cyber Security Authority and national intelligence agency Mossad. According to cybersecurity publication Bleeping Computer, the devices of at least 20 Partner Communications Company subscribers were compromised. Israel-based cybersecurity firm Pandora Security’s analysis of the event suggests the devices were likely …