Yesterday, the cryptocurrency exchange Altilly (https://altilly.com/) went down and on their website was a notification that they had lost control of their systems. Today, the Altilly team updated the visitors with more details and indicated that the attackers not only took control of their webpage, but internal databases, and wallets. The aggressors then deleted the files on servers, web hosting sites, and even offsite backup services.
Altilly does not know if any of these services can restore the data.
I am concerned as the notices never mention the use of offline Cold Wallets to protect from such hacks. Even if they do get their files back, if the attackers had access to the wallets, the coins are likely already gone. Often, such devastating attacks mean the end of an exchange and the beginning of lawsuits against those who ran the site. Rarely do customers get all their funds returned, but it sure can make it a painful lesson for the exchange owners.
Criminal investigations often accompany such events, as insiders can be the cause or straight-out fraud by the operators is always a possibility.
