The hackers targeted employees of TaskUs, a US-based company that provides customer service support to major tech firms. TaskUs has a large presence in India, and its agents in Indore handled support for Coinbase since 2017. In January, TaskUs laid off over 200 Indian staff working for Coinbase – just weeks after the data theft was discovered.
TaskUs salaries in India are not high – often between $500 and $700 a month. Due to low salaries, some workers in India were persuaded to hand over confidential customer records in exchange for bribes. Coinbase confirmed it had cut ties with the individuals and other overseas agents involved.
“Obviously that’s the weakest point in the chain, because there is an economic reason for them to accept the bribe,” Sergio Garcia, founder of the crypto investigations company Tracelon, told Fortune.
The stolen information wasn’t enough to access Coinbase’s crypto vaults directly. Instead, criminals used it to impersonate Coinbase staff and trick customers into giving up their crypto assets. These social engineering scams led to real financial losses, though Coinbase hasn’t revealed how many customers lost funds. The company says it is reimbursing affected users.
A class action lawsuit has been filed in New York, accusing TaskUs of negligence. The company insists the claims are baseless and says it’s strengthening its security measures. TaskUs believes two agents were part of a broader scheme involving attacks on multiple service providers linked to Coinbase.
The hackers are believed to be part of a loosely connected group known as “the Comm” or “Community” -- young, English-speaking cybercriminals who coordinate through Telegram and Discord. Unlike traditional hacking groups from Russia or North Korea, the Comm includes thrill-seeking teenagers and young adults who often compete for attention and success online.
According to a hacker who spoke with Fortune under the alias “puffy party,” different members of the group handled different parts of the operation: bribing agents, collecting data, and carrying out scams.
免責聲明：投資有風險，本文並非投資建議，以上內容不應被視為任何金融產品的購買或出售要約、建議或邀請，作者或其他用戶的任何相關討論、評論或帖子也不應被視為此類內容。本文僅供一般參考，不考慮您的個人投資目標、財務狀況或需求。TTM對信息的準確性和完整性不承擔任何責任或保證，投資者應自行研究並在投資前尋求專業建議。