UPDATED 00:11 EDT / OCTOBER 03 2017

EMERGING TECH

Etherparty initial coin offering website hacked

The website for Etherparty, an initial coin offering selling tokens for a blockchain-based smart contract tool, has been hacked, as the address for sending funds to buy tokens was changed to one controlled by the hackers.

The hack took place on the first day of Etherparty’s ICO, occurring 45 minutes after the Oct. 1 launch. The company detected the hack 15 minutes later and immediately took the site down for 95 minutes to fix the problem.

To Etherparty’s credit, the company has fully disclosed what occurred, what it has done to fix the issue and perhaps most important, how it would compensate users who were attempting to purchase tokens in the ICO. It didn’t put a figure on how much was stolen.

“Etherparty is the culmination of all our hard work and passion, which is why we will continue to listen to community feedback while we safeguard the security and experience on our platform,” the company said in a post on Medium. “In order to protect the interests of the community, we will be making it right with those that sent ETH to the hacked address by reviewing transactions sent before 10 A.M. and sending them corresponding FUEL [tokens] after Oct. 29, 2017.”

The only remarkable thing about the hacking of Etherparty is that it’s the first prominent hack of an ICO to occur for over a month after a regular flow of hacks before that. Veritaseum Inc. lost $8.4 million in a hack July 24, preceded by $7 million in Ethereum tokens being stolen from CoinDash and $31 million stolen from three companies the same month. The most recent ICO hack saw 1,500 in Ethereum tokens, worth $473,000 at the time, stolen from Enigma, a company pitching itself as an data-driven crypto investment platform.

Etherparty’s hack comes at a time of increasing scrutiny for ICOs. The Securities and Exchange Commission laid its first charges against an operator only yesterday, while across the Pacific, both China and South Korea have banned ICOs outright due to concerns relating to illegal activities.

Image: Etherparty

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