Bitfinex Among Major Firms Affected by Evolve Bank Data Theft

Cryptocurrency-friendly financial institution Evolve Bank and Trust has been implicated in a massive data breach. The bank has admitted to being aware of the incident, which involved the theft of 33 terabytes of user data.

While Evolve Bank insisted that customer funds appeared to be intact, it acknowledged that hackers may have been able to download sensitive customer information stored in the bank’s databases.

Evolve Bank Breach Exposes Data on Bitfinex and Other Companies

The cyberattack has been linked to the notorious Russian ransomware group Lockbit, and reports suggest that personal information of Bitfinex users was among the stolen data.

The stolen data from Evolve Bank reportedly contains sensitive personal information (PII), including names, addresses, Social Security numbers, tax ID numbers, dates of birth, account balances, and email addresses.

The information is said to be linked to over 155,500 accounts associated with various companies such as Bitfinex, Nomad, and Copper Banking.

In charge to update On Monday, Evolve revealed that some of its systems were down due to “unauthorized activity” in late May. This appeared to have been caused by an employee accidentally clicking on a malicious link. The bank said it stopped the attack “within days” and has not seen any unauthorized activity since May 31.

Delay in notifying affected businesses and users

Evolve said the attackers encrypted some data within its environment, but the platform was able to limit the loss and impact on its operations due to available backups. It also refused to pay the ransom and claimed that Lockbit mistakenly linked the data to the Federal Reserve.

“The investigation is in its early stages, but it appears that names, Social Security numbers, bank account numbers and contact information were affected for most of our personal customers, as well as customers of our Open Banking partners. We have now learned that personal information relating to our employees was likely also affected.”

Following this incident, several fintech companies that worked with the bank warned their customers that data could be compromised as a result of this breach.

However, according to Fintech Business Weekly reporter Jason Mikula, Evolve is He said Delaying notification to affected fintech companies as well as end users until the breach became publicly known last week.