Coinbase breach linked to customer data leak in India, sources say
WASHINGTON :Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase knew as far back as January about a customer data leak at an outsourcing company connected to a larger breach estimated to cost up to $400 million, six people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
At least one part of the breach, publicly disclosed in a May 14 SEC filing, occurred when an India-based employee of the U.S. outsourcing firm TaskUs was caught taking photographs of her work computer with her personal phone, according to five former TaskUs employees.
Three of the employees and a person familiar with the matter said Coinbase was notified immediately.
The ex-employees said they were briefed on the matter by company investigators or colleagues who witnessed the incident in the Indian city of Indore, noting that the woman and a suspected accomplice were alleged to have been feeding Coinbase customer information to hackers in return for bribes.
The ex-employees and person familiar with the matter said more than 200 TaskUs employees were soon fired in a mass layoff that drew Indian media attention.
Coinbase had previously blamed "support agents overseas" for the breach, which it estimated could cost up to $400 million.
Although the link between TaskUs and the breach was previously alleged in a lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Manhattan, details of the incident, reported here for the first time, raise further questions over when Coinbase first learned of the incident.
Coinbase said in the May SEC filing that it knew contractors accessed employee data "without business need" in "previous months." Only when it received an extortion demand on May 11 did it realize that the access was part of a wider campaign, the company said.
In a statement to Reuters on Wednesday, Coinbase said the incident was recently discovered and that it had "cut ties with the TaskUs personnel involved and other overseas agents, and tightened controls."
Coinbase did not disclose who the other foreign agents were.
TaskUs said in a statement that two employees had been fired early this year after they illegally accessed information from a client, which it did not identify.
"We immediately reported this activity to the client," the statement said. "We believe these two individuals were recruited by a much broader, coordinated criminal campaign against this client that also impacted a number of other providers servicing this client."
The person familiar with the matter confirmed that Coinbase was the client and that the incident took place in January.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNA
18 hours ago
- CNA
Warplane maker HAL wins bid to make India's small satellite launch rockets
BENGALURU : State-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd has won a bid to commercially make India's small satellite launch rockets, in the government's biggest move yet to open its fast-growing space industry to private players. Fighter jet maker HAL won with a bid of 5.11 billion rupees ($59 million), space regulator the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre said on Friday. Reuters reported in February that three consortiums - Alpha Design Technologies, a unit of Adani Defence Systems and Technologies, state-backed Bharat Dynamics and HAL - were the finalists to acquire India's Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) technology. "One of the big things we have been wanting to do is to make India the global hub for small satellite launches," Pawan Goenka, chairman of IN-SPACe told reporters. Shares of HAL rose as much as 1.6 per cent to hit a session high of 4,980 rupees after the announcement. Handing SSLV's technology to HAL marks a significant shift for India's space industry, which has already granted satellite communication service licenses to global and domestic firms such as France's Eutelsat and Reliance Jio's satellite venture. The rocket is capable of carrying 500kg payloads to low-Earth orbit. HAL will have the capability to build, own, and commercialize SSLV launches, Goenka added. HAL intends to offer a "very competitive" price on launches both for India and international clients, said Barenya Senapati, Director (Finance) at Hindustan Aeronautics. About 20 companies had initially expressed interest in bidding for the SSLV, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policy drive to open up India's space industry. The global low-Earth orbit launch vehicle market was valued at $13.9 billion in 2023 and is estimated to grow to about $44 billion by 2032, according to Global Market Insights. India, which accounts for only 2 per cent of the global space economy, is eyeing a fivefold expansion to $44 billion by the end of the decade. Hindustan Aeronautics and Larsen & Toubro, an industrial conglomerate, have a government contract to manufacture and deliver larger rockets to Indian Space Research Organisation. The first of those are due for launch between October and December, said Radhakrishnan Durairaj, chairman and managing director of New Space India Limited, the commercial arm of ISRO.
CNA
19 hours ago
- CNA
Cognizant to invest $183 million for new India campus, add 8,000 jobs
BENGALURU :Software services firm Cognizant Technology Solutions will invest 15.82 billion rupees ($182.76 million) to build a new campus in south Indian city of Vishakapatanam that will create about 8,000 jobs, the state government announced on Friday. Commercial operations will begin in March 2029, an Andhra Pradesh government press release said. Cognizant did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The announcement comes just months after India's top IT firm, Tata Consultancy Services, unveiled plans for 13.70 billion rupee campus in the same city, and is expected generate 12,000 jobs. The move aligns with Cognizant's strategy to optimise real estate costs. In May 2023, Chief Executive Ravi Kumar S said the company would relinquish 11 million square feet of office space globally, mainly in India's largest cities, while investing in tier-2 Indian cities. Globally, IT companies, including those in India's $283 billion sector, are taking cost-cutting measures such as monetising real estate assets and delaying wage increases amid demand uncertainty. Last month, the Teaneck, New Jersey-based company raised its annual revenue forecast and beat first-quarter results driven by increased demand for AI-powered IT services. Cognizant expects 2025 annual revenue between $20.5 billion and $21.0 billion, compared to previous outlook of the midpoint of $20.30 billion to $20.80 billion.
CNA
19 hours ago
- CNA
Norway plans temporary ban on power-intensive cryptocurrency mining
COPENHAGEN :Norway aims to impose a temporary ban on the establishment of new data centres that mine cryptocurrency with the most power-intensive technology, in order to conserve electricity for other industries, the Nordic country's government said on Friday. "The Labour Party government has a clear intention to limit the mining of cryptocurrency in Norway as much as possible," Minister for Digitalization and Public Administration Karianne Tung said in a statement. "Cryptocurrency mining is very power-intensive and generates little in the way of jobs and income for the local community," she added. A temporary ban could be introduced during the autumn of 2025, the government said.
