The ongoing story of El Salvador’s government-run Bitcoin (BTC) wallet, Chivo, continues to unfold as hackers reveal additional sensitive information associated with the wallet.
On April 23, the hacker group known as CiberInteligenciaSV released part of the source code on the black hat hacking crime forum BreachForums. In a statement, the group emphasized that they are sharing this information for free because the wallet is owned by the government.
This release is just the latest event in a series of Chivo hack-related incidents. Earlier in April, the personal data of 5.1 million Salvadorans, which represents nearly the entire adult population of the country, was exposed to the public.
VenariX, a local cybersecurity project, took to X on April 22 to issue a warning about the impending leak. They referred to CiberInteligenciaSV’s Telegram channel, which had announced plans to release the source code.
CiberInteligenciaSV also made the file Codigo.rar available, which contains a compilation of code and VPN credentials from the Chivo Wallet ATM network.
In September 2021, El Salvador made history by becoming the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. The government promoted Chivo as the official BTC wallet for citizens, allowing them to buy, sell, store, and withdraw Bitcoin from ATMs.
However, the Chivo wallet faced a rocky start, with users encountering multiple bugs and technical glitches.
Despite reports of a personal data breach on Chivo surfacing in early April, the Salvadoran government has yet to address the issue. This lack of an official statement has only added to the confusion surrounding the situation.
As the saga continues, Bitcoin OGs and experts are offering advice on how to protect your cryptocurrency in a volatile market.