The cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex has entered the list of platforms accused of SIM swap fraud. Greg Bennett, a Seattle-based investor, has indicted the platform over the SIM swap, accounting for a loss of 100 bitcoins worth $1 million.
Bennett filed the lawsuit in Washington state’s King County Superior Court, stating that Bittrex meddled its privacy and security laws by ignoring industry standards and refraining the prospect to stop the widespread crime. The victim accuses the exchange of failing to act as he notified it about the ongoing hack on April 15, 2019. The Department of Financial Institutions, which is the financial, legal examiner for the Washington state regulator that handles consumer complaints, has declared that Bittrex did not “take reasonable steps to respond” to Greg’s intimation and “appears” to have violated its own terms of service.
Bittrex yet abstains from commenting about Bennett’s case, but Bill Shihara, the CEO, in a conversation with CoinDesk, stated about the exchange’s resolute security to prevent account transgressions. He stressed upon the employed two-factor-authentication and e-mail verification services.
Shihara further argued that trusting one’s phone for high security is also not very appropriate as once it is taken over, every price of information is accessible. He stated, “unfortunately, one of the mantras that we use and often publish articles about is that ultimately you can’t trust your phone. You have to be aware that you could lose control of your phone.”
