Hackers bribed Coinbase employees to obtain the data
Coinbase confirmed suffering a cyberattack recently
The attack started when crooks bribed the company’s employees overseas
Passwords, and user funds, were not affected
Coinbase, one of the biggest centralized cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, suffered a cyberattack which might cost it between $180 million and $400 million. This is according to Reuters, citing a regulatory filing submitted by the company earlier this week.
The exchange said that on May 11, it received an email from an unknown threat actor who claimed they obtained internal documents, and sensitive data about certain customer accounts. Coinbase later confirmed these claims, saying that only a “small subset” of customers were affected.
The data stolen doesn’t include login credentials or passwords, but Coinbase did say it would reimburse anyone who gave their money to the attackers. To obtain the files, the criminals allegedly paid “multiple contractors and employees” who were working in support roles outside the US.
