Coinbase Announces $20 Million Bounty for Data Breach Case

Coinbase has launched a $20 million reward program in response to a recent data breach. The company claims the attack, involving compromised customer service agents and extortion attempts, impacted less than 1% of its users. Criminals exploited overseas support staff to gain access to sensitive information from internal systems. However, Coinbase assures users that passwords, private keys, and funds were not compromised. Notably, these attacks involved stolen data like names, contact information, masked Social Security Numbers, bank details, and account activity used for social engineering scams by impersonating Coinbase. The attackers demanded a $20 million ransom, which Coinbase rejected. Instead of complying, the company is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible. Coinbase has committed to reimbursing affected customers who fell victim to scams resulting from this incident. Affected users have already been notified. To bolster security measures, Coinbase has taken several proactive steps: establishing a new customer support hub in the U.S., enhancing systems to detect insider threats, implementing mandatory scam-awareness prompts, and conducting identity checks on flagged accounts. Additionally, the company is working closely with law enforcement to recover stolen funds.