A former Coinbase support agent in India has been arrested in connection with the massive security breach involving the crypto giant earlier this year. The arrest was confirmed by both Coinbase and Indian police in Hyderabad, and came months after hackers bribed customer service staff to steal customer information.
The breach triggered a $20 million ransom demand and left the company facing a $400 million fallout. The breach began in May, when hackers managed to buy access from Coinbase contractors outside the United States, gaining entry to internal systems. “What these attackers were doing was finding Coinbase employees and contractors based in India who were associated with our business process outsourcing or support operations, that kind of thing, and bribing them to obtain customer data,” said Philip Martin, Coinbase’s Chief Security Officer.
Coinbase confirms the arrest of the suspect
The breach was wide, allowing the attackers access to customer accounts for months. This type of social engineering attack has become a growing problem in the crypto world. Philip denied that the hackers had full access the entire time. In an interview with Bloomberg News, he mentioned that once the company discovered staff were leaking data, their access was immediately revoked.
“They did not have persistent access over the course of the entire period,” he claimed. The arrest was announced on X by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who said, “We have zero tolerance for bad behavior and will continue to work with law enforcement to bring bad actors to justice. Thanks to the Hyderabad Police in India, an ex-Coinbase customer service agent was just arrested. Another one down and more still to come.”
However, not everyone in the crypto community was impressed. One user replied under Brian’s post: “lol why you acting like this is a win. You hired them in the first place.” Meanwhile, Coinbase is still digging out of the mess. The cost of repairing damage and reimbursing affected users could be as high as $400 million, putting it among the top ten biggest crypto hacks ever, according to Elliptic.
A Coinbase spokesperson also confirmed the India arrest and said it followed the firm’s work with the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, where charges were recently filed against a Brooklyn man accused of running “a long-running impersonation scheme targeting Coinbase customers.”
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