By ALAN SUDERMAN
Coinbase, the biggest cryptocurrency trade primarily based within the U.S., stated Thursday that criminals had improperly obtained private knowledge on the trade’s prospects to be used in crypto-stealing scams and had been demanding a $20 million cost to not publicly launch the data.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated in a social media submit that criminals had bribed a few of the firm’s customer support brokers who stay exterior the U.S. at hand over private knowledge on prospects, like names, dates of start and partial social safety numbers.
“(The stolen data) allows them to conduct social engineering attacks where they can call our customers impersonating Coinbase customer support and try to trick them into sending their funds to the attackers,” Armstrong stated.
Social engineering is a well-liked hacking technique, as people are typically the weakest hyperlink in any community. Many massive firms have suffered hacks and knowledge breaches on account of such scams in recent times.
Coinbase didn’t specify what number of prospects had their knowledge stolen or fell prey to social engineering scams. However the firm did pledge to reimburse any who did.
Coinbase shares fell 6% in buying and selling round noon. The shares are nonetheless up about 22% this month as a consequence of positive aspects in bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies.
In a submitting with the Securities and Trade Fee, Coinbase estimated that it must spend between $180 million to $400 million “relating to remediation costs and voluntary customer reimbursements relating to this incident.”
The SEC submitting stated that the corporate had, “in previous months,” detected a few of its customer support brokers “accessing data without business need.” These staff had been fired, and the corporate stated it stepped up its fraud prevention efforts.
Armstrong stated the corporate was refusing to pay the ransom and would as an alternative supply a $20 million bounty for anybody who supplied info that led to the attackers’ arrest.
“For these would-be extortionists or anyone seeking to harm Coinbase customers, know that we will prosecute you and bring you to justice,” Armstrong stated. “And know you have my answer.”
Initially Printed: Could 15, 2025 at 5:15 PM EDT
