Uppsala Security, a provider of tools for crypto AML, risk management, regulatory compliance, and cybersecurity, has announced that in cooperation with Bithumb — a South Korea based bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange, it has helped a victim to recover approximately 20 million KRW ( around USD $18,000) by timely identifying the suspect of a virtual asset fraud.
According to the Crypto Incident Response Center (CIRC), a service recently launched by Uppsala Security, a fraud case was reported by the victim in late February 2021. Uppsala Security’s investigators tracked and analyzed the flow of the victim’s reported digital assets in real-time and confirmed that the stolen funds reached a Bithumb Exchange wallet.
In response, Uppsala Security notified the compliance department of Bithumb, its virtual asset AML partner, and the personnel in charge promptly double-checked the suspicious funds and related information so that a virtual asset tracking report could be timely provided to the victim.
“We were able to protect the customer assets through a quick and proactive cooperation with the blockchain security company Uppsala Security. We will continue to do our best to prevent this type of incidents and safely protect the customer assets through comparable joint efforts.”
– An official of the Bithumb team
The victim reported the damage to the police using the tracking report jointly confirmed by the two parties as evidence, and the cybersecurity team at the Daegu Bukbu Police Station, which received the case request, presented a search warrant to Bithumb to conduct a full-fledged investigation.
Bithumb completed the Know Your Customer (KYC) process for the suspected wallet address, which had been observed in advance in close cooperation with Uppsala Security, and delivered the information of the suspect’s account to the police. By doing so, the police quickly arrested the malicious actor and helped the victim recover all the initially lost funds.
According to Uppsala, the victim said, “I would like to express my gratitude to the cybersecurity team of the Daegu Bukbu Police Station for proactively conducting the investigation and to Bithumb exchange and Uppsala Security for the close cooperation in helping me to quickly check the alleged wallet.”
“This specific case is really significant, as it is the first case that ended in the successful recovery of the stolen funds, with the help of Uppsala Security’s Crypto Incident Response Center (CIRC) service. It is our mission to quickly identify the wallet address of the suspects, fund flow and transactions as well as the targeted exchanges, but in this situation, it would not have been possible to solve this case without the rapid cooperation and response of Bithumb and Daegu Bukbu Police Station. As during April-June is the government’s special all-round crackdown on virtual asset fraud and crime in South Korea, I look forward to shaping a closer cooperative line between law enforcement agencies, exchanges, and Uppsala Security in the future.”
– Patrick Kim, Founder & CEO of Uppsala Security
Uppsala Security (UPP) offers virtual asset AML solutions to Samsung Blockchain Wallet users in 19 countries as well as to Bithumb, Coin&Coin Exchange, Danal Fintech, and Hexlant and has recently launched MCIS, a professional security control service for virtual asset companies.
