Aussie BTC Markets to Self-report to OAIC Over Erroneously-exposed Users Info

Leading Australian digital currency exchange, BTC Markets had mistakenly exposed customers’ contact information today while trying to send out a message to them through email. Having explained how the incident occurred, the cryptocurrency exchange expressed their remorse for the data breach. To that extent, BTC Markets said it’s ready to self-report the development to the Office of Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

How Users’ Contact Information Got Exposed

As the Australian exchange explained, it sends out messages to customers through email, using an external system. BTC Markets first runs test emails with the system before proceeding with the actual message. This method has been practically working for the exchange for a number of years now, until the malfunction today. The exchange precisely explained:

“However, today, our testing didn’t pick up that the sample email addresses in the batch were added to the same email, rather than sent individually. In this case, the batch sizes were under 1,000 email addresses.”

BTC Markets said it was impossible to prevent the error when it was realized because the whole process was very quick. Consequently, the contact details, such as users’ names and email addresses, were exposed in the messages. “This is a deeply regrettable situation, and we apologize wholeheartedly for it,” the exchange wrote, adding that the security of its users is of paramount importance to them.

BTC Markets to Self-report to OAIC

Meanwhile, BTC Markets said it would self-report the incident to the Office of Australian Information Commissioner and comply with whatever be the requirements for the data breach reporting. To ensure the adequate safety of users, the exchange will also undergo an internal review to tighten up its data security. 

About users’ assets, BTC Markets assured that they are unaffected and secured. “Our external communication process has no interaction with our internal system, and no password data was exposed.”