Ledger CEO speaks out on massive data breach

Pascal Gauthier, CEO of Ledger, took part in a podcast to discuss the customer data leak.

Ledger was the subject of a massive hack that resulted in widespread user data leakage.

Some users are threatening to take collective action as a result of these events

Pascal Gauthier, CEO of Ledger, spoke with Peter McCormack on the “What Bitcoin Did” podcast to discuss the recent data breach that affected customers.

Pascal Gauthier started the podcast with an apology, stating that the company is doing everything possible to correct the situation.

He believes that the disclosure of the data does not affect Ledger’s hardware at any level, but rather the personal information of users.

After explaining the circumstances of the hack, Gauthier reassured podcast listeners that Ledger is doing his best to be as transparent as possible. He clarified that the relevant information is available on the Ledger website.

In this high-profile hack, Ledger suffered massive data infiltration. As a result of the hack, the personal data of more than 277,000 Ledger customers has now been disclosed online.

This data includes personal information such as the names of customers, their physical and e-mail addresses and their telephone numbers.

According to the Twitter account of Alex Krüger ( @krugermacro ), an economist and trader with more than 55,000 followers, anyone who purchased a Ledger wallet before July 2020 has most likely had their personal information exposed.

What’s next for Ledger?

Ledger announced the data breach on Twitter and said: “It is an understatement to say that we sincerely regret this situation”.

The company also explained that it was taking important precautions, especially with the hiring of an information security officer (CISO). She also performs tests with external security companies and works with law enforcement.

Several affected Ledger clients are nevertheless threatening to take class action against the company.

Safety Precautions for Users

If you have purchased hardware such as the Ledger Nano S or the Ledger Nano X or if you have already subscribed to its newsletter, it is highly likely that at least some of your information has been compromised.

Mr Kruger gave more advice on the situation, insisting to the owners of the wallet :

The personal data of 272,000 Ledger buyers has been leaked. If your data has been compromised, make sure you are not using your number for 2FA anywhere. Change to a VoIP, or GA number. Otherwise, contact @haseeb, a Bitcoin OG whose company provides protection against SIM swapping.

Mr. Kruger described some of the characteristics of personal cryptocurrency theft. Indeed, digital theft is not what most people imagine.

It ends with a cartoon showing an “imaginary” hack, where thieves try to develop an advanced computer program to hack your wallet, as opposed to a much more realistic crypto theft.

In the real theft there are no awesome hackers, but desperate men with big keys who will attack you endlessly until you give them the password. While this is rare, malicious actors could theoretically track down known crypto users.

If you are one of the users affected by this new data breach, there are a number of security precautions that are worth exploring.