Coinbase breach linked to customer data leak in India, sources say
At least one part of the breach, publicly disclosed in a, opens new tab May 14 SEC filing, opens new tab, 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, opens new tab.
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, opens new tab 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.
Reuters could not determine whether any arrests have been made. Police in Indore did not return a message seeking comment.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Najeeb Ahmed: Delhi court closes investigation into JNU student's disappearance
Nine years ago, an Indian student vanished into thin air. Najeeb Ahmed was studying biotechnology at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi, when he mysteriously went missing in October night before his disappearance, the then 27-year-old who lived in one of the university's residential hostels was involved in a scuffle with members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a right-wing student group. The students have denied any involvement in his disappearance. For years, India's crime-fighting agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), has been trying to figure what may have happened to Mr Ahmed - the agency took over the case from city police in 2017. Now a court in Delhi has finally shut the investigation after the CBI said it had exhuasted all possible leads in the case. "As a parting note, the court earnestly hopes that Najeeb Ahmed shall be traced soon," the court said in the order, which was announced last month. Mr Ahmed's family, however, have alleged the inquiry was not conducted in a proper manner and said they would appeal the decision in a higher court. "What message does it send, that India's premier investigating agency has not been able to find a missing student from one of India's best universities?" Mr Ahmed's mother Fatima Nafees told BBC Hindi. "We will not give up until we find our son."Born in a village in Uttar Pradesh, Mr Ahmed, the son of a carpenter, was the eldest of four. His family made many sacrifices to support his JNU education."After completing his undergraduate degree, he was adamant that he wanted to study at JNU," Ms Nafees said. "I told him you can take admission, but you won't stay in the hostel. You are too naive. But he didn't listen to me." On the night of 14 October, 2016, Mr Ahmed reportedly got into a scuffle with a group of students affiliated to ABVP who were campaigning for hostel elections. JNU is known for its vibrant and intense student politics, with ideological groups often clashing over campus his testimonies to the CBI, his roommate Mohd Qasim said that Mr Ahmed got injured in the altercation and had to be taken to a public hospital, where he was allegedly refused treatment. The doctors told him they could not treat his wounds without a formal crime complaint having been made to the police, his roommate to the court order, Mr Ahmed chose not to file a complaint and returned to campus. He went missing the next day, leaving behind his phone, wallet, and clothes in his hostel room.A CBI report says Mr Ahmed last used his phone and laptop around 10am the day he disappeared. A hostel warden told the agency that he saw Mr Ahmed getting into a tuk-tuk in the morning and leaving campus. Ms Nafees, who had been informed of the scuffle over phone by Mr Ahmed's roommate, was on her way to Delhi to see her son. She arrived in the morning and upon finding him missing, filed a missing persons complaint on 15 October 2016. For days, there was no progress. Protests erupted on campus as students and activists accused authorities of November 2016, Ms Nafees filed a petition in the Delhi High Court, accusing the police of being "slow, misdirected and subjective" and called for a court-monitored probe.A month later, Delhi Police conducted two extensive searches using sniffer dogs across JNU's sprawling campus - but again, nothing was found. In May 2017, the court handed over the investigation to the CBI. A year later, the CBI told the court it had exhausted all possible leads - and asked the bench to close the case. The agency said it had examined more than 500 witnesses, collected information from taxi, bus, train and flight operators, and searched hospitals and morgues, but had found nothing.A one million rupees [$11,600; £8,600] reward for information about Mr Ahmed also failed to yield results, investigators argued. The case dragged on for two more years, when in 2020, Ms Nafees returned to court, this time to challenge the CBI's conclusions. She alleged the agency failed to properly probe the students involved in the scuffle with her son. She said they had a "clear motive", had threatened him, and should have been arrested. The CBI denied all allegations saying they had left "no stone unturned" in looking for Mr agency said it had tracked the phone locations of the nine students involved in the fight with Mr Ahmed that night, but found no evidence linking them to his disappearance. Explaining its decision to finally shut the case, a court in Delhi said that the CBI has investigated "all plausible avenues" thoroughly but "no credible information" could be received about Mr Ahmed's judge dismissed Ms Nafees' plea, noting that while witnesses confirmed verbal threats, there was no "direct or circumstantial" evidence linking Mr Ahmed's disappearance to the fight with ABVP members."Such scuffles and exchanges are not unheard of" in the charged atmosphere of JNU, the order court, however, added that the CBI could reopen the case if new information comes to order has been a huge blow for Mr Ahmed's family and well-wishers. Colin Gonsalves, who represented Ms Nafees in the Delhi High Court in 2018, said he still questioned the investigation. "The police routinely arrest people for minor crimes in India. It's shocking then, that none of the students were taken into custody for questioning," he said. Ms Nafees alleges that her son's religion had affected the seriousness of the investigation."If the victim had been a Hindu boy, would the police have responded the same way?" she asked. "They would have demolished the houses of those suspected," she alleged, referring to the rising instances where homes of individuals accused of crimes are bulldozed by Indian authorities. The BBC has reached out to the CBI for comment. However, the agency has consistently maintained that they have carried out the probe impartially. In 2018, the Delhi High Court had said that they had found no evidence that CBI investigated the case unfairly or "under political compulsions". Ms Nafees says she's not done fighting. Every 15 October, the day her son vanished, she joins a candle march at JNU in his memory. The hope has dimmed, but the wait continues."Sometimes I wonder if I should put a nameplate outside our house," said Nafees Ahmed, his father. "Our house has been renovated. What if he comes, but can't recognise it?"Follow BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Donald Trump declares US is going to 'win' AI race as administration unveils action plan
Donald Trump has declared the United States is going to "win" the artificial intelligence race, as his administration unveiled its AI Action Plan. The new blueprint is designed to speed up the building of energy-intensive data centres - which run AI products - by loosening environmental rules, while also vastly expanding the sale of AI technologies overseas. The plan, which includes 90 recommendations, comes as America attempts to maintain its edge over China, with both superpowers investing heavily in the industry to secure economic and military superiority. It calls for the export of US AI software and hardware abroad, as well as urging the removal of "red tape" that could be seen as stopping the industry from flourishing. In a speech in Washington DC, Mr Trump said: "America is the country that started the AI race. And as president of the United States, I'm here today to declare that America is going to win it." He said the technological arms race with China was a fight that will define the 21st century. The president added: "We also have to have a single federal standard, not 50 different states regulating this industry in the future." And he said at the 'Winning the AI Race' summit that "America must once again be a country where innovators are rewarded with a green light, not strangled with red tape". An expansion in exports of AI products could benefit AI chip makers Nvidia and AMD as well as AI model giants Alphabet's Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Facebook parent company Meta. During his time in office, former president Joe Biden brought in restrictions on US exports of AI chips to China and other countries which America feared could divert the semiconductors to the Asian superpower. Mr Trump rescinded Mr Biden's executive order aimed at promoting competition, protecting consumers and ensuring AI was not used for misinformation. He also rescinded Mr Biden's so-called AI diffusion rule, which capped the amount of American AI computing capacity some countries were allowed to obtain via US AI chip imports. The Trump plan also aims to block the government from doing business with tech companies unless they "ensure that their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias". Mr Trump's AI czar, David Sacks, has been criticising "woke AI" for more than a year. Demand for power in the US is hitting record highs this year after nearly two decades of stagnation as the number of AI and cloud computing data centres expands across the country. The tech industry has been pushing to loosen rules to get its computing facilities connected to power sources. But the AI building boom has also led to more demand for fossil fuel production, which contributes to global warming.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Trump floats spectacular name change for AI after admitting he 'can't stand' current term
President Donald Trump attended an artificial intelligence summit on Wednesday, even as he revealed to the audience of eager tech moguls he was not a fan of the name. 'Around the globe, everyone is talking about artificial intelligence,' Trump said. 'Artificial. I can't stand it, I don't even like the name.' As the audience stared wordlessly at the president, he suggested they change the name. 'I don't like anything that's artificial so can we straighten that out please?' Trump asked. 'We should change the name.' As some in the audience laughed in response, Trump continued, 'I actually mean that.' 'I don't like the name artificial anything, because it's not artificial its genius. It's pure genius,' he said, indicating he would prefer the name 'genius intelligence' better than 'artificial intelligence.' President Trump spoke after the White House released it's AI Action Plan on Wednesday, which detailed the administration's efforts to boost the development and innovation of the technology. The document recommends that Trump streamline regulations and permitting to allow companies to build massive data centers and energy sources quickly to help accelerate the industry. It also recommends that the administration promote the export of American AI models abroad to help dominate the spread of the technology. The plan also stresses the administration's determination to enshrine the rights of free speech into artificial intelligence models, warning that the federal government would only contract with companies with AI models 'free from top-down idealogical bias.' During his speech, Trump announced he was getting rid of Biden's executive order which outlined a preference preference for companies who prioritized DEI programs and climate goals. 'We're getting rid of woke,' Trump said triumphantly, adding that, 'It's so uncool to be woke.' He said his goal was to root out 'partisan bias' or idealogical agendas from tech companies and artificial intelligence models such as 'critical race theory' which he described as 'ridiculous.' 'The American people do not want woke Marxist lunacy in the AI models and neither do other countries,' Trump said. 'From now on the US government will only work with AI that works with truth.' Trump acknowledged the dangers of artificial intelligence, but described the race with China and other countries on the technology as one the United States had to win. 'This technology brings the potential for bad as well as for good, for peril as well as for progress but the daunting power of AI is not going to be a reason for retreat from this new frontier,' The president signed two executive orders at the summit, joking he would not sign the executive order with an auto-pen, in a dig to his predecessor former President Joe Biden. 'Good luck because the race has just begun and we're going to win it,' he said to the tech executives as he exited the event.
