Hackers drain cryptocurrency accounts of thousands of Coinbase users

https://www.pcgamer.com/hackers-drain-cryptocurrency-accounts-of-thousands-of-coinbase-users/

by hariswill • 5 years ago

101 35 5 years ago

pcgamer.com

Dracophoenix• 5 years ago

Mt. Gox Part Deux. This is why I go by the adage "If you don't own the keys, you don't own the crypto".

Semaphor3• 5 years ago

As much as I agree in general, if you own the keys and fuck up, then there would be no one to make you whole.

onion2k• 5 years ago

Do you believe Coinbase are going to cover people's losses?

fastball• 5 years ago

This is almost nothing like Mt. Gox.

dna_polymerase• 5 years ago

You either didn’t bother to read the article or you have no idea what happened to Mt. Gox. Either way, you are wrong.

taylorfinley2• 5 years ago

This was posted a few days ago with a much less sensational headline. Also important to note it was 6,000 users and Coinbase has made them all whole.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28719786

2muchcoffeeman2• 5 years ago

What does “made whole” mean here? They transferred the missing crypto to the users?

Mordisquitos• 5 years ago

I'm also curious as to why I keep seeing the vague and somewhat uncommon expression "to make whole" in relation to the Coinbase breach. I have neither the time nor the interest to dig into the matter, but my astroturfey-senses are tingling.

taylorfinley2• 5 years ago

"(transitive, finance, law) To provide (someone), especially under the terms of a legal judgment or an agreement, with financial compensation for lost money or other lost assets."

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/make_whole

q1w23• 5 years ago

I am unconvinced that Coinbase didn't have some sort of breach here. I don't believe they disclosed everything.

Multiple people I know with Coinbase accounts were solicited by the hackers - none of them have ever mentioned to anyone that they had a Coinbase account on any social media platform.

collectedparts• 5 years ago

Discussion last Friday (re: California notice): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28719786

q1w23• 5 years ago

That notice is toes the line between disclosing the absolute minimum and remaining compliant.

They never deny being hacked, but never admit it either. ...and they pretend that it was likely all the users' fault.

Trias112• 5 years ago

Person I know tried to reach Coinbase support human to no avail.

He searched google for "coinbase support number" and dialed the number found.

Friendly operator guided him to solve a problem.

$50k lesson learned.

vntok• 5 years ago

Did he solve the problem?

celticninja• 5 years ago

Yes, now he has no cryptocurrency so now he has no problem.

martinko• 5 years ago

I take it the number was fake and that he lost his money.

qzw2• 5 years ago

He should invoice Amazon for establishing the perverse norm where googling-for-support-contact is the only way to find such info.

strogonoff• 5 years ago

Where does that work? I tried googling for Amazon support contact after I got locked out of my Amazon Japan account. There is no email address; there is one phone number where a bot tells you to use the website.

Semaphor3• 5 years ago

Amazon.de has a callback service (or the chatbot, which I actually prefer as soon as it connects you with a human), is that not available elsewhere?

mikeywazowski• 5 years ago

Odd that someone capable of obtaining 50k in crypto was able to be scammed in that fashion, particularly when the real phone number shows up in big bold font when googling "coinbase support number"..

To be fair, the search results may well have changed in between now and then but the support number isn't that hard to find on the coinbase site. Are you sure this person is being truthful, and not running their own scam?

q1w23• 5 years ago

This problem isn't specific to Coinbase.

MerelyMortal• 5 years ago

For that amount, it seems like it would be worth trying to sue Google. It may be next to impossible now if they no longer display that phone number though.

ramesh31• 5 years ago

If you're not running a full node on your own encrypted hardware, you shouldn't be doing anything but playing with crypto. It's almost as if the current financial system evolved over hundreds of years of hard lessons learned to have certain tradeoffs like reversible transactions that mitigate this threat for the general populace.

GoblinSlayer• 5 years ago

You wouldn't need deposit insurance if transactions were reversible.

Uptrenda• 5 years ago

If this is the same SS7 protocol flaw that security experts have been using to justifiably avoid SMS in 2-factor auth schemes forever now it's face palm inducing. Not that this sounds like a simple hack if they also compromised inboxes. Sounds like the victims were already very well owned at that point. Lesson learned I guess. I wonder how much it cost Coinbase.

paunthony• 5 years ago

Even 2FA's aren't safe from the hackers and to think that it is coming from Coinbase.

didntknowya• 5 years ago

at this point i'd just expect any exchange to be breached at some stage.

if you want to be be safe you should store your crypto in cold storage rather than online

Hackers drain cryptocurrency accounts of thousands of Coinbase users

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