Personal data in danger: how a small breach exposes your crypto wallet
After the leak at Bits of Gold, the truly important question arises: not whether an organization will be hacked, but whether it will know how to minimize the damage, protect its customers, and recover. Attorney Rami Tamam explains how information that seems innocent can become a dangerous tool in the hands of attackers.
"A cyberattack today is no longer a question of when or if, but what the intensity of the impact will be and whether you will know how to recover from it," says Attorney Rami Tamam, a cyber and forensics expert from Ono Academic College.
According to him, one of the central points of vulnerability is the digital supply chain: even if the exchange's core systems are protected, external suppliers, cloud systems, and data analysis services can become an entry point. Therefore, he says, companies must ask whether a supplier really needs all the information it received, or if it is possible to restrict permissions and separate different databases.
The risk is particularly significant in the crypto world, where connecting "Know Your Customer" (KYC) data to wallet addresses can compromise user anonymity. A wallet address in itself does not necessarily reveal its owner, but when it is connected to a real identity, it is possible to analyze activity appearing on the blockchain over time and build a broader picture of transactions and financial activity.
"It is possible to create clusters and link activities," explains Tamam.
Such information can also be used for follow-up attacks, including phishing and even taking over the victim's phone number to authorize actions in accounts.
The cyber incident at Bits of Gold, in which concerns arose regarding the exposure of customers' personal information following unauthorized access to an external data analysis system, raises a broader question about the ability of crypto companies to deal with attacks.
Tamam believes that the cyber world has changed rapidly, and the measures that were effective a year ago are not necessarily sufficient today. The same tools, such as the cloud or chatbots that streamline our work, are also available to cyber attackers. Therefore, he says, exchanges and financial institutions must focus not only on preventing a breach but also on resilience and the ability to recover. He recommends professional oversight frameworks alongside the board of directors, pre-prepared response plans, and a crisis management center that can centralize information and provide a unified and rapid response to customers.
Customers of any entity that has been affected, he says, should contact it immediately to demand clear answers regarding the scope of the incident and the steps taken, and to warn about financial damages for which the entities are expected to be liable. In a world where no system is completely immune, the true measure of security may no longer be just the ability to prevent an attack, but the ability to survive it and emerge with minimal damage.
