Coinbase hack reveals crypto vulnerability to old-school crime: Bribery
Coinbase Global (COIN) often touts how it is “building the financial system of the future,” but last week the cryptocurrency exchange made a disclosure that highlighted how vulnerable it was to a very old-fashioned form of crime: bribery.
Cyberattackers accessed names, addresses, government-ID imagery, transaction history, and account balances of customers comprising less than 1% of its monthly transacting users, Coinbase said, and demanded a ransom payment of $20 million.
How did criminals get this information? By bribing retail customer service agents in India, according to the company.
The data breach disclosure interrupted what should have been a crowning moment for Coinbase as it joined the S&P 500 (^GSPC) following…
