In our latest cryptocurrency article, we’ll take a deep dive into the recent cyber attack against Coinbase. Fortunately, no customers were affected in terms of their funds or information – as per Coinbase’s announcement. Their engineering team has surmised that the attack appears to be part of an advanced phishing scheme. Let’s continue reading for further insight!
On Feb. 5, Coinbase staff were the unfortunate victims of a cybersecurity attack involving SMS scams and malicious individuals who impersonated IT personnel. Fortunately, no customers’ accounts or data was compromised in this incident according to the engineering team’s report from Coinbase.
On a Sunday evening, Coinbase personnel were sent SMS notifications that ordered them to log in with the hyperlink included for an important alert. This individual tried multiple times to get remote access into Coinbase’s inner workings using their username and password but was blocked by Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) security systems. Thankfully, all of their attempts failed!
Initially blocked from authorization, the attacker cunningly posed as a Coinbase IT department employee to gain access. They were successful in their scheme – shortly thereafter Coinbase’s Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) was tipped off about an irregular activity through its Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM) system. As soon as this news broke, an incident responder contacted the victim by internal messaging system with cautionary advice due to the unusual behavior observed.
Coinbase’s sophisticated control environment shielded customer assets and data from any malicious activity, despite certain personnel information being exposed.
This attack is thought to be related to a sophisticated, large-scale campaign that has been targeting companies since last year, with the United States specifically being affected. Group-IB’s cybersecurity company reported in August similar phishing attacks on staff from Twilio and Cloudflare as part of an extensive programme which resulted in over 9,931 accounts belonging to more than 130 organisations being hacked.
Whether you are an individual or a business, if you have done any cryptocurrency trading in Australia, it is important that you stay up to date with your taxes. With Crypto Tax Calculator Australia, we make it easy for you to calculate and lodge your tax return. We have a free trial available so that you can try our app before deciding whether to sign up for one of our paid plans. If you have any questions about how our app works or how to Lodger your tax return, feel free to contact us and one of our friendly staff will be more than happy to assist you.