Three years ago, in the case where crypto assets worth 58 billion yen leaked from the so-called virtual currency = major exchange company of crypto assets "Coincheck", the Metropolitan Police Department knew that about 20 billion yen of this was illegally leaked According to an interview with an investigative official, it was found that dozens of people had been arrested for accepting the exchange for another crypto asset.
On the other hand, the person involved in the outflow itself has not been identified.
Three years ago, in January 2018, about 58 billion yen worth of crypto assets called "NEM" leaked from the major crypto asset exchange company "Coincheck" due to unauthorized access from the outside, and then anonymity A low-priced exchange was called for at a high dark site.
It is believed that the purpose was money laundering, which makes the funds obtained from the crime look legal, but it was said that the Metropolitan Police Department accepted the exchange for another crypto asset knowing that it had been leaked illegally. By the time, dozens of doctors and company officers had been arrested or sent documents on suspicion of violating the Organized Crime Punishment Law, according to an interview with investigators.
The total amount is about 20 billion yen, which means that dozens of people are suspected of having made a large amount of profit by bringing the exchanged "NEM" to domestic and overseas exchanges and cashing it.
On the other hand, since the person involved in the leak itself has not been identified, the Metropolitan Police Department will continue to investigate on suspicion of computer fraud.
The circumstances of the incident
It was January 26, 2018, three years ago, that a crypto asset called "NEM" leaked from a major exchange company "Coincheck" in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo.
According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, about 58 billion yen, which is more than 5% of the NEM that was in circulation at that time, was leaked in just 20 minutes after midnight.
It is confirmed that there was unauthorized access from the outside from 3 days to 2 days before the leak.
In addition, about 10 days after the leak, a call was made on the highly anonymous dark site "Dark Web" to "exchange NEM for another crypto asset at a low price", and there were a series of movements to accept the exchange.
In an attempt to contain this, the Singapore-based promotion organization "NEM Foundation" uses special technology to track on the Internet and cash the leaked crypto assets into criminals to major exchanges around the world. I called on you not to let me.
However, the leaked NEM was complicatedly distributed to another account and it was not stopped, and the NEM Foundation stopped tracking after about two months.
Since then, the entire amount is believed to have been exchanged or redeemed for another crypto asset.
The Metropolitan Police Department is proceeding with the investigation by receiving the communication record of the server from "Coincheck", but there are many cases where special software that does not follow the communication path is used for unauthorized access from the outside, 3 years Even now, the person involved in the outflow itself has not been identified.
On the other hand, in response to the incident, "Coincheck" strengthened its countermeasures so that all crypto assets are managed in a state where it is blocked from the external network, and a specialized department for security measures is set up to provide training in preparation for cyber attacks. It is said that it is done on a regular basis.
In addition, the Financial Services Agency has also amended related laws such as the Fund Settlement Law, and for exchange companies that manage crypto assets while connected to an external network, secure a certain amount of crypto assets in preparation for outflow. We are working to strengthen user protection, such as making it obligatory to secure it.