Coinbase revealed on Thursday that cybercriminals bribed overseas customer support contractors to steal sensitive customer data as part of a $20 million extortion scheme. While no funds or private keys were compromised, customer names, addresses, and ID documents were exposed for nearly 1% of the company’s 8+ million “monthly transacting users,” according to a blog post.
The story raises tough questions for the entire industry. Is KYC making users more vulnerable? Can human error ever be fully eliminated? And is crypto’s real security problem… people?
Security experts Jameson Lopp, James Wester and Alexander Leishman delve into:
What went wrong at Coinbase
Why human vulnerabilities are still crypto’s biggest risk
Whether KYC makes the problem worse
What companies should do next to protect their users