FreshMarket Exchange Hacked , Shuts Down (Temporarily)

Yesterday, we talked about whether the new exchanges popping up left & right was a good idea, because it could lead to fragmentation of cryptocurrencies.

There is another factor to take into consideration whenever you want to run a service like an exchange : website security.

As we have recently seen with OpenEx, another new exchange that got hacked within its first days of existence, FreshMarket has suffered the same fate.

Several user passwords, which were stored in hashed form, have been compromised and used to withdraw funds to the hacker’s wallet(s).

The admin part of the exchange has also been compromised, and the hacker set an ultimatum : either he gets paid 10 Bitcoin, or he would withdraw all funds in every wallet.

This once again goes to show you that running an exchange is not as easy as you might think. Invest in properly securing your exchange when undertaking these kinds of projects.

Even if you think it’s secure, let some people try to get past your security & see if it’s actually as tightly locked down as you think.

FreshMarket is currently closed, and may even never open again. The people behind FreshMarket are looking at different ways to refund people who have lost coins, so if you were one of them, make sure to get in touch.