News
Indian Crypto Exchange WazirX Files Police Complaint After $230M Hack, Engages With Cyber Crime Unit
Cryptocurrency exchange WazirX has filed a police complaint after suffering a $230 million cyber attack on Thursday.
The company has also reported the incident to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), he said on XPartnering with CERT could mean seeking help from India’s premier cybersecurity incident response agency.
The development comes a day after the cryptocurrency exchange saw $230 million withdrawn following security breach that hit one of its wallets. WazirX said that “multiple exchanges” were “collaborating” with them and that their immediate plans included “tracing stolen funds, recovering customer assets, and conducting a deeper analysis of the cyberattack.” The company also said it was “working with forensic experts and law enforcement agencies to identify and apprehend the perpetrators.”
The next step will be a First Information Report (FIR), a person familiar with the matter told CoinDesk. In India, after a complaint is filed, police will prepare a First Information Report (FIR) if they determine that an official investigation is warranted. Involving the police could mean further scrutiny of WazirX’s books, operating systems, and security standards.
CERT-In did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.
India’s Finance Ministry declined to comment. Since cryptocurrency remains unregulated in the absence of legislation passed in parliament, the sector remains outside the purview of almost all authorities, except, to a limited extent, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU-India).
WazirX, which is registered with FIU-India, which falls under the Ministry of Finance, has submitted a report to the body about the incident. However, the FIU is required to monitor transactions under the country’s Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Since the WazirX incident is a security breach, the incident does not fall under the purview of the FIU. The FIU declined a request for in-person comment.
“There is currently no specific regulation for cryptocurrencies in India and the industry would benefit from clear regulatory expectations on issues such as security standards, risk management and consumer protection,” Joanna Cheng, associate general counsel at Fireblocks, told CoinDesk in an email. “Regulatory intervention in this space would also mean that exchanges serving large numbers of retail customers would be held accountable for their actions (or inactions).”
Sumit Gupta, co-founder of CoinDCX, another major Indian cryptocurrency exchange, told CoinDesk that he had “reached out to WazirX to extend our support to their clients and are open to ideas and suggestions on how we could support them.”
India’s cryptocurrency advocacy body, the Bharat Web3 Association, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.