One of the biggest, reliable and most trusted Bitcoin exchange Bitstamp on Monday announced that it has been a target of a hacking attack, which lead to the theft of “less than 19,000 BTC” (worth about $5 million in virtual currency; one BTC is about $270).
The United Kingdom and Slovenia-based Bitstamp exchange has taken their website offline in order to secure the remaining Bitcoin and making sure the hackers can not access or compromise any more of the remaining amount.
The notice on the site claims only ‘operational wallets’ were compromised on 4th January, but to avoid any further breach; the site will remain offline. All users have been notified about the breach via email.
Bitstamp has also said that all customers’ “balances held prior to our temporary suspension of services will not be affected and will be honored in full.”So far, there is no clue about the hackers and how the theft happened. Also, the company hasn’t revealed any other details about suspects behind the breach or when its service will resume. “We will return to service and amend our security measures as appropriate,” the company said.
“We appreciate customers’ patience during this disruption of services,” Bitstamp added in the notice. “We are working to transfer a secure backup of the Bitstamp site onto a new safe environment and will be bringing this online in the coming days.”
This is not the first time when a hackers have compromised such a large amount of Bitcoin, in fact Bitcoin is in all sorts of trouble these days with its Pioneer Charlie Shrem sent to 2 years in prison and previous Silk Road 2.0 breach in which $2.5 million in Bitcoins were Stolen last year. In 2013, hackers defaced BitcoinTalk.org; putting almost 150,000 user emails and passwords for sale.
Bitstamp.net is still under maintenance so stay tuned for updates.