Crypto Exchange Coinsquare Suffers Data Breach – Here’s What Happened

The Canadian crypto exchange platform, Coinsquare recently suffered a data breach. It is the first exchange to have received registration from the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC). The data violation has compromised the user’s personal information.

Coinsquare also shut down its operations in the month of November. Coinsquare had taken many days of dynamic and proactive measures, which had then caused the crypto exchange to resume its operations slowly.

The exchange had sent out emails to its investors after the security breach, in which the management stated that the customer database was compromised. As a result, personal information was also accessed by a third party due to the leak.

The Details Accessed In The Breach

The compromised database included much of the user’s personal information, which comprised of names of investors, email addresses, residential addresses, phone numbers, device IDs, public wallet addresses, dates of birth, transaction histories, and even account balances.

The only saving grace was that no passwords were accessed, as Coinsquare confirmed.

We note that your assets have always been, and remain, secure in cold storage and are not at risk.

Coinsquare remains certain that it has not detected any bad actors accessing the breached information. The formal communication mentioned that users must change their passwords and enable 2-Factor authentication (2FA). Not just that, users should also be cautious and use different credentials for different platforms.

Coinsquare’s IIROC Registration

The crypto exchange is Canada’s longest-operating trading platform. Last month Coinsqaure announced the IIROC-approved Coinsquare’s dealer registration and membership.

With this regulatory status, the exchange became Canada’s first crypto IIROC registered investment dealer and marketplace.

The registration was supposed to ensure the highest level of dealer compliance and oversight under the existing regulatory system.

With regulation came the system of fully segregating the client’s funds, which would then be kept by licensed and insured custodians.

IIROC registration mandates that the exchange will be required to report its financial standing regularly to maintain capital for liabilities.

Furthermore, cash held in client accounts is protected by the Canadian Investment Protection Fund in the event of insolvency.

At the moment, Coinsquare has more than 500,000 users and offers access to more than 40 cryptocurrencies, including more than 820 coin-to-coin trading pairs. The crypto exchange has facilitated approximately $5.82 billion in trades since its beginning in 2014.

Canada has had a different regulatory approach compared to the United States. Canada requires all crypto exchanges operating in the country to be registered, or at least apply to the IIROC.

The United States has been re-evaluating the effectiveness of crypto regulations owing to the fall of the biggest exchanges and crypto ecosystems in the last year. The most prominent names in the list include FTX, Celsius, Terra, and Voyager.

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