By Alba Gei
Bitquick.co experienced a service interruption on March 14th, which has continued through the week and may last as long as a month according to Jad Mubaslat and Chad Davis. The outage was the result of a security breach.
The service is a P2P trading site where buyers and sellers can trade bitcoin for payment methods such as direct bank deposits and Bitquick had originally issued this statement on the company's Facbook page:
Unfortunately due to a security compromise, we will be down for an indeterminable amount of time. No funds have been taken, all funds are still secured. Send urgent inquiries to [email protected]
This is also where the bitquick.co website is now directing to immediately where they appear actively attempting to get things in order.
Bitquick told dinbits.com that they were preparing an official statement early Thursday morning and subsequently released the following statement which we have published unedited in its entirety:
March, 17 2016 - 10:24 AM EST
When BitQuick was first founded back in August, 2013 it was founded with the intention to make Bitcoin trading safer and simpler. Through the years, we have always put customer security as our top priority. In February, 2014 we were the first US trading platform to implement proof of reserves following the Mt. Gox incident. 2015 up through now has seen incredible growth; BitQuick reached $1.5M 30 day trailing volume just last week, 15x where we were in January, 2015. This would not have been possible without our loyal and supportive customer base.
On Monday, March 14, 2016, our server fell victim to an attack that gave the attacker unauthorized administrative access. The breach was immediately noticed, and the server was shutdown to prevent any further damage. We are still performing a formal investigation to determine the attack vector, and specifically what information was obtained from the server. Due to additional security mechanisms in place, no funds were taken, and all ID’s (driver’s licenses, passports, etc.) and emails remain secured. Sellers were emailed withdrawal instructions Tuesday evening. All outstanding orders and withdrawals have been processed. Only 3% of all funds remain unclaimed. Support is still available at [email protected].
We have always provided our customers with the highest level of security and convenience, and we will not restore service until we are 100% confident we can continue to provide the same level of service that our customers are accustomed to, and deserve. This will occur once the investigation has been completed, the attack vector has been patched, and the rest of the source code has been audited for security. We estimate that this process could take anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks. An update will be issued to all BitQuick customers once the investigation has completed, and once service is restored.
Completely separate from this event, BitQuick has been engaged in the search for new management due to personal reasons for the current team. It has been an incredible 2 and a half years, and it has been a wonderfully rewarding experience to be able to offer thousands of customers a simple and fast solution for trading Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, an experience that has no doubt been greatly enhanced by our remarkably dedicated and supportive user base. We know that our service is truly unique, and that our vision can still be fulfilled. If this is a project that you or someone that you know would be interested in pursuing, please let us know. We’re looking for passionate and talented individuals or corporations to take ownership and continue growth with the same high standards we’ve always provided for our users. If interested, contact [email protected].
Until then, we will continue working as hard as we can to restore safe service access. We really appreciate the support from everyone, and we will be back soon.
- Jad Mubaslat & Chad Davis
It's good to see swift action and even better to hear that no customer funds were lost. The downtime of 2 to 4 weeks is certainly going to be a problematic for those who rely on the service, but if we recall, Bitstamp was down last year for a period of time before it returned in full force and have been going strong ever since.
If Mt Gox taught anyone anything it was that security cannot be taken lightly. It appears that this is the primary concern at Bitquick and that is always good news.
Article by Alba Gei
Image by dinbits staff
Bitquick logo courtesy Bitquik.co
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