Swiss minister’s data uncovered in recent data breach

The Swiss minister’s details were disclosed after he bought a cryptocurrency and published his address, email and phone number. According to the Swiss newspaper Le Matin Dimanche, the company he used to buy crypto from was hacked, so keep reading today’s crypto news.

Swiss Federal Councilor Alain Berset is the victim of a new data breach in which his personal information such as address, email and phone number was disclosed to the public after a company he bought hacked a cryptocurrency.

The fintech company Ledger SAS, which offers services for buying, selling, securing and storing cryptocurrencies, suffered an attack in 2020 and the data of Swiss ministers was stolen and made available to the public.

Berset’s address and phone number in Freiburg are easy to find on the dark World Wide Web, where stolen personal information is sometimes sold. Berset is Switzerland’s Interior Minister, the body that leads the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. A spokesman for the department confirmed that Berset bought the cryptocurrencies privately a few years ago to learn more about how they worked.

The spokesman did not name the amount invested and did not answer whether he owned a cryptocurrency, but Berset was initially unaware of the data breach at Ledger. Ledger said on its website that it had emailed customers about the cyber attack and that their assets were not at risk and no information about funds or transactions had been stolen.

As recently reported, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA Switzerland) has given the Cryptocurrency Markets Index Fund the green light to become the country’s first crypto investment vehicle with the appropriate license. As reported by Reuters, the Cryptocurrency Market Index Fund is only available to qualified investors. The Swiss financial regulator said it falls into the “other funds or alternative investments” category, which is higher risk. With regard to these risks, FINMA stated that the approval was granted after considering specific requirements and included the inclusion of assets in the fund with a larger trading volume.

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) will oblige local providers of digital assets to comply with new regulations and to prevent criminals from using cryptocurrencies. The regulator also turned to BTC ATMs, believing that drug traffickers use these machines a lot.