The president of the platform of electronic exchange Coincheck Koichiro Wada bows as a sign of apology after a break-in massive virtual Tokyo, January 26, 2018 (Photo -. JIJI PRESS)
The japanese authorities announced Monday administrative measures against the platform of electronic exchange Coincheck, after a hacking massif which has resulted in the loss of virtual credit balance that is equivalent to about 58 billion yen (430 million euros).
In a press release, the Agency of financial services (FSA) has ordered the company to investigate the causes of the incident, respond to the customers cheated “appropriately”, to strengthen the management of risks and take preventive measures to avoid a new meltdown.
Searches could be conducted in the premises of Coincheck, which must make a report by February 13.
Friday, the platform japanese had detected “unauthorized access”, before suspending deposits and withdrawals from its customers in all of its assets, with the exception of bitcoin, an announcement that had caused a drop in the price of cryptomonnaies.
The company has since committed to drawing on its own reserves, to be repaid in yen on its cover 260,000 customers who lost their assets in the NEM, the 10th largest virtual currency by its market capitalisation, according to the website CoinMarketCap.com.
In total, 523 million NEM disappeared into thin air, or 58 billion yen during Friday.
The FSA will ensure that Coincheck is well able to meet its commitments, said one of its leaders at a press conference on Monday.
The gendarme financial has also indicated that it is conducting checks on other exchange platforms in order to detect potential security problems.
– The previous MtGox –
The japanese government has denounced the security vulnerabilities that this flight of great extent revealed within Coincheck.
“We will take the necessary administrative measures, including conducting on-site inspections,” said Finance minister Taro Aso during a session in Parliament. “They have not stored the significant assets separately,” he stressed, lamenting their “lack of basic knowledge or common sense.”
Coincheck retained the assets of its clients in a place connected to external networks, and therefore more vulnerable to computer attacks.
More broadly, the spokesperson of the executive, Yoshihide Suga, called to discuss ways to better regulate the virtual currency. “While looking for the cause of the incident, we hope that the ministries and agencies concerned are studying urgently the further measures that we need,” he underlined during a press regular.
It is loss the most important ever recorded in the history of cryptomonnaies from the spectacular bankruptcy filing, in 2014, the platform of exchange tokyo MtGox, which had broken the first impulse of the bitcoin in Japan. Its former leader, the Frenchman, Mark Karpelès, has tried since last summer to Tokyo for data manipulation and embezzlement, allegations he denies.
In recent months however, the interest was income in the archipelago. Many Japanese are so taken of bitcoin and other virtual currencies after the entry into force, in the spring of 2017, a law regulating these currencies, while strengthening the requirements for transparency and financial solidity of operators in the local market.
According to this text, which was specifically designed to better manage incidents and to protect the interests of users after the bankruptcy of MtGox, the managers of cryptomonnaies have the obligation to be registered with the Agency in financial services.
Coincheck has not yet received such a license, but had received permission to continue to operate pending a decision of the regulators.
