CZ: Amid frequent data breaches, users can take several steps to protect themselves

October 28: Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said four data breaches were reported today. Coinbase vendor Amplitude leaked some user contact data, with funds unaffected; South Korea's Bithumb suffered a user data breach; and South Korean securities firms Mirae Asset and Daishin Securities also experienced data breaches.

Zhao said breaches cannot be completely avoided, but users can protect themselves. Leaked exchange data is typically used for phishing, SIM swap and social engineering attacks. He advised users to use a separate email alias for each exchange, provide only necessary information and use a dedicated phone number; use a password manager to generate unique long passwords, enable hardware security keys or passkeys, avoid SMS 2FA, turn on withdrawal address whitelists and time locks, set an anti-phishing code, regularly check active sessions and API keys, and limit API key permissions. He also reminded users to guard against SIM swapping, phishing and impersonation, avoid publicly disclosing their holdings, and avoid linking large assets to their home address. If an exchange announces a breach, users should immediately change their passwords, check whether their email was compromised, revoke API keys and active sessions, review recent withdrawals and security settings, and be wary of phishing messages sent by exploiting the breach.