Swiss Bitcoin Pay Shuts Down Servers Amid Customer Data Exposure
Swiss Bitcoin Pay has taken its servers offline as a precautionary measure after an intruder allegedly gained access to its internal systems. The company warned that customer email addresses, Bitcoin addresses, bank IBANs, transaction histories, and hashed passwords may have been exposed.
No customer money is at risk, according to Swiss Bitcoin Pay, due to its non-custodial design which keeps payments passing directly from customers to merchants without holding funds on the compromised systems. However, it was revealed that the company does briefly hold some user balances, even though they are generally small amounts, as part of a batching system for incoming Lightning payments.
The exposed data could lead to tailored phishing attacks and potentially link Bitcoin addresses to real names, allowing anyone to trace on-chain activity. Swiss Bitcoin Pay has not provided information on the number of affected customers or how the attacker gained access.