Reward of $20 Million Given by Coinbase to Eliminate Criminal Cybernetwork Responsible for Hack
In a shocking turn of events, digital currency exchange platform Coinbase has reported a significant data breach on May 15, 2023. The breach exposed customer data such as names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, masked Social Security numbers, masked bank-account numbers, government-ID images, account data, and limited corporate data. However, it's important to note that no passwords, private keys, two-factor authentication (2FA) data, funds, or hot and cold cryptocurrency wallets were exposed during the breach.
The attackers aimed to impersonate Coinbase and trick customers into handing over their cryptocurrency holdings. Fortunately, the attackers have not been able to access or move customer funds. The breach affected less than 1% of Coinbase's monthly transacting users.
Coinbase has taken swift action against the perpetrators. They have been fired and referred to US and international law enforcement. The company also intends to press criminal charges against those who carried out the cyber-attack. Coinbase was asked to pay a $20m ransom to stop the scam, but they publicly refused to comply and are working with law enforcement and security industry experts.
In response to the breach, Coinbase has preliminarily estimated remediation costs and voluntary customer reimbursements to be within the range of approximately $180m to $400m. The company is strengthening security controls and monitoring across all locations, implementing additional safeguards, and increasing investment in insider-threat detection and automated response.
To address the issue of bribed and recruited rogue overseas support agents, Coinbase is opening a new support hub in the US to bolster its support operations. They are also implementing extra ID checks on large withdrawals and mandatory scam-awareness prompts.
In a bid to catch the culprits, Coinbase has announced a $20m reward program. This program offers a significant bounty to anyone who identifies and helps arrest the perpetrators of the Coinbase cyber-attack. The reward is for whoever provides information leading to the capture of the attackers responsible for the hack involving insider bribery and theft of customer data in early 2025.
Coinbase is also collaborating with law enforcement and the private sector to identify the attackers' addresses. They encourage anyone with relevant information to email [email protected]. The company is also reimbursing customers who were tricked into sending funds to the attackers.
In the aftermath of the breach, Coinbase Prime accounts remained unaffected. The company is simulating similar security threats to identify potential vulnerabilities and is committed to maintaining the highest level of security for its users.
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