BTC-e Data Leak

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BTC-e

The BTC-e platform was breached in October 2014. Data on 568,355 users was breached, although since passwords were hashed efficiently, only usernames, email addresses, IP addresses, dates of registration, and language settings were captured.

This exchange or platform is based in Russia, or the incident targeted people primarily in Russia.

About BTC-e

"BTC-e was a cryptocurrency trading platform founded in July 2011 by Alexander Vinnik and Aleksandr Bilyuchenko". "BTC-e was established in July 2011, handling a few coin pairs, including Bitcoin/U. S. dollar and I0Coin to Bitcoin. By October 2011, they supported many different currency pairs, including Litecoin to dollars, Bitcoin to rubles and RuCoin to rubles." "It was a component of the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index since the index's September 2013 formation."

"A stolen data set containing user information from BTC-E from October 2014 revealed a total of 568,355 users registered with the exchange."

"The breached data contained all manners of user details including usernames, email addresses, passwords, IP addresses, dates of registration, and the user’s preferred language. Somewhat alarmingly, some profile details even revealed the number of bitcoins owned by the user."

"However, BTC-E used a discreet and a unique password hashing method to secure user passwords, a method unknown even to LeakedSource. Currently, every single password of over half a million BTC-E users remains “completely uncrackable, although that may change”, according to LeakedSource."

This exchange or platform is based in Russia, or the incident targeted people primarily in Russia.

The background of the exchange platform, service, or individuals involved, as it would have been seen or understood at the time of the events.

Include:

Known history of when and how the service was started.
What problems does the company or service claim to solve?
What marketing materials were used by the firm or business?
Audits performed, and excerpts that may have been included.
Business registration documents shown (fake or legitimate).
How were people recruited to participate?
Public warnings and announcements prior to the event.

Don't Include:

Any wording which directly states or implies that the business is/was illegitimate, or that a vulnerability existed.
Anything that wasn't reasonably knowable at the time of the event.

There could be more than one section here. If the same platform is involved with multiple incidents, then it can be linked to a main article page.

The Reality

This sections is included if a case involved deception or information that was unknown at the time. Examples include:

When the service was actually started (if different than the "official story").
Who actually ran a service and their own personal history.
How the service was structured behind the scenes. (For example, there was no "trading bot".)
Details of what audits reported and how vulnerabilities were missed during auditing.

What Happened

The specific events of the loss and how it came about. What actually happened to cause the loss and some of the events leading up to it.

Key Event Timeline - BTC-e Data Leak
Date	Event	Description
October 15th, 2014 12:00:00 AM	First Event	This is an expanded description of what happened and the impact. If multiple lines are necessary, add them here.

Total Amount Lost

The total amount lost is unknown.

How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?

Immediate Reactions

How did the various parties involved (firm, platform, management, and/or affected individual(s)) deal with the events? Were services shut down? Were announcements made? Were groups formed?