14 DAY TRIAL // A group of hackers claims to have breached the systems of the now defunct Mt. Gox in an effort to find out what really happened to the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange.
Dzoba.com has been monitoring the ##mtgox-chat chat room. An individual using the online moniker “nanashi____” said he and his group breached Mt. Gox in an effort to determine what had happed.
He claims to have obtained access to a database, Mt. Gox source code, a conversation in Japanese between a banker and the Bitcoin exchange’s CEO Mark Karpeles, a large number of passport scans, and personal information belonging to the company’s employees.
So far, only the conversation, employee email addresses and phone numbers, and the source code have been leaked. More information might be published soon.
While it’s difficult to determine if the code truly belongs to Mt. Gox, it doesn’t appear to show up anywhere else online.
Mt. Gox’s downfall started a few weeks ago when the platform banned its customers from withdrawing Bitcoins from their wallets due to a bug. On February 20, a message posted on the website said the company was working on re-initializing transactions.
However, a few days later, news surfaced that Mt. Gox was hacked and 744,000 Bitcoins were stolen. In the last days of February, the company filed for bankruptcy, having outstanding debts of $63.6 million (€46.1 million).
Since many people lost a lot of money, it’s not surprising that some of them are anxious to find out what has happened. Those who claim to have hacked Mt. Gox probably fall into this category.
On its website, Mt. Gox has announced the establishment of a call center to respond to “all” inquiries. The center was launched today, March 3, 2014. It’s supposed to be working from Monday to Friday between 10AM and 5 PM Japan time.
However, The Register reports that the call center isn’t actually responding to all inquiries. Of the several attempts made by the publication to contact the call center, only one went through. The call reached a woman who apologized for not being able to answer any questions because her English wasn’t very good. She claimed English-speaking staff was busy taking other calls.
In the meantime, at least one class action has been filed against Mt. Gox. Gregory Greene of Chicago has filed a lawsuit on behalf of all those impacted by the company’s downfall. Greene has lost $25,000 (€18,000), but others have probably lost much more.