South Korean authorities Fine 8 Exchanges for Lacking Proper Security
The fact that South Korean authorities are highly focused on the cryptocurrency market is no secret. Authorities have been looking for ways to ban certain aspects of the cryptocurrency market and now it seems that they have been targeting some exchanges.
Local media reported that some of the biggest exchanges in South Korea have been fined by authorities for poor security standards. The eight exchanges were fined with the total sum of $130,000. Reportedly, each exchange received a fine between $10,000 and $25,000. The exchanges that have been fined include Korbit, Coinone, Upbit, Coinplug, Coinpia and RippleForYou.
Bithumb was not among the companies fined
This means that the only big cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea that has not been fined now is Bithumb. The fines against the big exchanges were imposed by the South Korea Communications Commission for violations of the Information and Communication Network Act and Privacy Act.
The fact that the South Korea Communications Commission imposed these fines was first reported by a local media outlet, Yonhap News. The news outlet actually indicated that the fines were imposed after an in-depth investigation conducted by the commission, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Information, as well as the South Internet Development Agency.
The investigation was conducted between October and December 2017 on a total of ten cryptocurrency exchanges. This means that authorities found two exchanges to be in compliance with the law, while eight were in violation of the requirement to implement proper security measures.
Local media reported that the fines imposed by the South Korea Communications Commission are somewhat low compared with the damages that can be suffered when hacks or information leakage happen. The commission stated that:
“Although the size of transactions and the number of users are increasing, overall user protection measures are insufficient, such as failure to comply with basic protection measures, the establishment and operation of access control devices, and the establishment of password rules for personal information handlers.”
The two companies that received the highest penalties were Coinone and Yapian for failing to comply with privacy measures, including failing to store passwords and user information in a secure manner.
