Report: Localbitcoins.com Allegedly Hacked, Forum Temporarily Down

On January 26, 2019, the renowned crypto exchange Localbitcoins was allegedly hacked, resulting in temporary closure of their forum.

In an official twitter announcement released on Saturday, the company mentioned the LocalBitcoins’ report on the security vulnerability 26.01.2019

LocalBitcoin’s report on security vulnerability

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It is to be noted that LocalBitcoins is a peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange based out of Finland. Its service facilitates over-the-counter trading of local currency for bitcoins. On its website, various users post advertisements on the website. They mention exchange rates as well as payment methods for buying or selling bitcoins.

As per a reddit user “bitcoinbabeeau”:

When visiting the localbitcoins forum: https://localbitcoins.com/forums/ Users are prompted to log into their account, as if they have been logged out. This only seems to happen if you are already logged in. This is is a PHISHING SITE and 2FA codes are being used to empty customer accounts. Withdrawals have since been suspended by LocalBitcoins.

It is to be noted that their discussion forum is also temporarily down at the time of reporting:

As per LocalBitcoin’s latest released vulnerability report, the exchange is now safe to use. The report added that they were able to identify the problem, which was related to a feature powered by a third party software, and stop the attack.

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The report added that they are in the process of determining the correct number of users affected. At the moment, six cases have been confirmed, as per them. Furthermore, the forum feature has been disabled until further notice, for security reasons.

The report further added that the outgoing transactions have already been re-enabled and they have taken a number of measures to address the aforementioned issue and secure the limited number of accounts which could be at risk.