Cryptocurrency companies impacted by HubSpot breach

HubSpot confirmed a recent security breach within its network that the company believes was "a targeted incident focused on customers in the cryptocurrency industry."

The CRM and automated marketing vendor announced Saturday that the breach impacted "fewer than 30 HubSpot portals," and at least two cryptocurrency companies, BlockFi and Swan, have admitted that they were victims of the HubSpot breach. BlockFi and Swan each released a statement on March 18, saying that the financial information and funds of their customers were safe, but other personal information may have been exposed.

Swan stated in an email sent to customers that "for clients and prospective clients, the data included: name, email addresses, account type (personal, business, or retirement), phone, and in some cases company name, if this information was provided at the time of sign-up or inquiry."

BlockFi's release, however, did not specify what information may have been exposed, and only clarified what they knew for certain was safe: the company's internal servers, client funds, client account passwords, government-issued ID numbers and Social Security numbers. Both companies emphasized that their networks were not breached, and only data stored in HubSpot portals was affected by the attack.

HubSpot said the breach, which occurred on March 18, stemmed from a threat actor accessing an employee account. According to HubSpot's disclosure, certain employees like account managers and support specialists have access to customer data so that they can better assist customers. HubSpot said the compromised account was shut down and other employee accounts with customer access were restricted following the breach.

HubSpot cautioned that the information in its disclosure was based on an initial examination of the breach and that it "may learn additional facts through our investigation that cause the details above to change or evolve."

The HubSpot breach was far from the first cyber attack aimed at the cryptocurrency industry. Over the past several months, major cryptocurrency exchanges have been hit by attacks. The attacks have often been ransomware aimed at stealing customer and employee data or just monetary theft from security breaches.

In January, Crypto.com became one of the largest names to be attacked, as it reported unauthorized activity on user accounts, resulting in a loss of $35 million. 

In February, it was reported that cryptocurrency platform Wormhole lost $320 million in the cryptocurrency Ethereum following a cyber attack.