South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinone has alerted its customers to potential phishing scams and identity theft following a data breach at its outsourced customer support provider, MetaM. The breach occurred on Thursday when an attacker accessed MetaM’s servers and viewed or extracted customer support records. Coinone discovered the incident the same day but only disclosed it to customers on Sunday.
The exposed data varies by customer and may include names, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, bank account numbers, passwords, national identification numbers, home and wallet addresses, and transaction IDs. Coinone emphasized that only customers who contacted its support center were affected, though it did not specify the number of impacted users.
In response, Coinone urged affected customers to change any passwords shared during support interactions and warned of potential fraudsters impersonating the exchange using details from previous conversations. The exchange also confirmed that its account, trading, and wallet infrastructure operates separately from MetaM’s servers, with no evidence of direct compromise. Coinone has reported the incident to South Korean authorities.
The breach comes amid South Korea’s efforts to strengthen financial-sector cybersecurity. In October, the Financial Services Commission identified security deficiencies at 130 of 555 financial firms reviewed. Additionally, the regulator recently allowed crypto exchanges to suspend withdrawals when hacking is suspected, alongside calls for round-the-clock monitoring.