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Coinbase says hackers bribed staff to steal customer data, demanding $20M ransom

(www.cnbc.com)
410 points gpi | 3 comments | 15 May 25 15:52 UTC | HN request time: 0.725s | source
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neilv ◴[15 May 25 16:07 UTC] No.43996445[source]▶
The article keeps saying overseas employees or contractors, but isn't more specific on who Coinbase entrusted with this sensitive customer PII.

The bottom line is Coinbase didn't adequately secure sensitive customer information, and it was leaked.

Not, "Gosh, 'overseas' people, what can ya do?"

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kragen ◴[15 May 25 16:19 UTC] No.43996557[source]▶
It's probably hard to keep call-center workers bribe-proof.
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bombcar ◴[15 May 25 16:26 UTC] No.43996626[source]▶
Call center workers who have access PII and financial abilities should probably be vetted a little bit better.
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kragen ◴[15 May 25 16:28 UTC] No.43996653[source]▶
How are you going to vet people to find out if they're vulnerable to bribery? Offer them a bribe during their probationary period, during which they only have access to fake customer data?
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bombcar ◴[15 May 25 16:31 UTC] No.43996686[source]▶
You can do a background check, but the reality of the matter is that you pay citizens a living wage to do the work instead of offshore it into a country that pays pennies.

Bank tellers can take thousands out of the vault at any time and yet it seems it’s not a very big issue.

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1. kragen ◴[15 May 25 16:35 UTC] No.43996716[source]▶
Bank tellers are constantly surveilled by cameras, security guards, and several-times-daily cash counting, and it's still easy to find accounts of them having stolen significant amounts of money before getting caught. These are all from within the last year:

Vannia Chatt: https://6abc.com/post/former-citizens-bank-teller-accused-st...

Karen Farrell Tigler: https://www.irs.gov/compliance/criminal-investigation/former...

Stephanie Rose Kilbert: https://people.com/bank-teller-stole-money-while-pretending-...

Derek Aut: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/former-bank-teller-arrest... https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/03/28/boston...

Mountee Brown: https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/pr/maryland-bank-teller-plea...

Being US citizens doesn't make people incorruptible. In fact, many other countries are less corrupt than the US. Someone in this very thread reports having witnessed bank tellers getting bribed in one of those countries: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43996765

I've been through a background check designed to screen out people who were vulnerable to bribery. They interviewed my friends and family from the previous several years to find out if I was secretly gay, cheated on my wife, gambled, drank too much, used illegal drugs, or had money problems for some other reason. It took about a year. I think it would be hard for a financial institution to be economically competitive doing that kind of thing with their call-center workers, because their customers can't tell if they're secure or not, just how much their services cost.

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2. bombcar ◴[15 May 25 17:00 UTC] No.43996983[source]▶
Then shift liability and let the insurers take care of it.

With a lot of this online stuff, no matter who gets your password or access to your account it’s you who has to take care of it. Whereas if the bank teller steals from the till it’s not your problem.

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3. kragen ◴[15 May 25 17:11 UTC] No.43997102[source]▶
I suggest following the links I provided, which clearly demonstrate that the comment you posted in reply to them is false.