How hackers stole crypto from 6000 Coinbase customers

The Cryptocurrency trading company Coinbase disclosed that a hacker stole cryptocurrency from around 6,000 customers. The attacks reportedly took place between March and May 2021.

Coinbase is the second-largest crypto exchange in the world. The company went public in April 2021. It has 68 million customers in over 100 countries and holds more than $223 billion in assets.

Coinbase customers have a long history of being hacked, with poor customer service adding insult to injury (https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/24/coinbase-slammed-for-terrible-customer-service-after-hackers-drain-user-accounts.html)

Coinbase claims that hackers knew the customers’ phone number, email address, and password associated with their Coinbase account. It is unclear how the hackers got this information.

Coinbase recommends that users use MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication), OTPs (One-Time Passwords), or SMS text messages to make their accounts more secure. So even if a customer’s email id, phone number, and password are compromised, the MFA keeps their account secure.

However, Coinbase has admitted that a vulnerability existed in their SMS account recovery process. This allowed hackers to receive the SMS authentication token, which gave them access to the account.

Subsequently, Coinbase has fixed the vulnerability in the SMS Account Recovery protocols.

Coinbase has promised impacted customers that it would make good their losses.

All Coinbase customers should change their account passwords immediately.

Coinbase also recommends that users switch to a more secure MFA method, such as a hardware security key or an authentication app.

Finally, users have been alerted to keep an eye out for targeted phishing emails or SMS texts.