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410 points gpi | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.417s | source
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mafriese ◴[] No.44003034[source]
> The threat actor appears to have obtained this information by paying multiple contractors or employees working in support roles outside the United States to collect information from internal Coinbase systems to which they had access in order to perform their job responsibilities

Based on the information present in the breach, I think it's likely that the source was their customer support in the Philippines. Monthly salary is usually < 1000$/month (entry-level probably even less than 500$) and a 5000$ bribe could be more than a year worth of money, tax-free. Considering the money you can make with that dataset now, this is just a small investment.

> •Name, address, phone, and email; •Masked Social Security (last 4 digits only); •Masked bank-account numbers and some bank account identifiers; •Government‑ID images (e.g., driver’s license, passport); •Account data (balance snapshots and transaction history); and •Limited corporate data (including documents, training material, and communications available to support agents).

This is every threat actor's dream. Even if you only had email addresses and account balances, this is a nightmare. Instead of blackmailing the company, you can now blackmail each individual user. "Send me 50% of your BTC and I won't publish all of your information on the internet". My guess is that we will have a similar situation like we had with the Vastaamo data breach...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vastaamo_data_breach

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lm28469 ◴[] No.44003213[source]
> •Name, address, phone, and email;\

> blackmail each individual user

Blackmail would be the least of my worries, in France we had at least five kidnappings/attempted kidnappings related to crypto investors since the beginning of the year.

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stringsandchars ◴[] No.44003382[source]
This may seem callous, but isn't a large point of crypto that you are 'free' from the shackles imposed by the State?

And I guess that includes protection from criminals by the oppressive forces of the State (aka the police). In which case being kidnapped and having your fingers sent to your family is an integral part of your 'freedom'.

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1. snodnipper ◴[] No.44003450[source]
It seems that law-abiding citizens often bear the greatest risk by declaring their assets to tax authorities and relying on so-called "trusted custodians" for savings. Ironically, for many, the safest course of action is likely non-disclosure, though this is, of course, illegal in much of the world.
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2. anonzzzies ◴[] No.44003688[source]
I only have to declare crypto < 1 year in my holding which means that, while technically illegal to buy 1 second after the new tax year start and not declaring it, in practice, obviously, no-one cares about that. Especially as crypto is not a 1 second buy; it can take hours.