An unknown menace actor went to nice lengths to try to compromise the interior techniques belonging to one of many world’s hottest cryptocurrency alternate platforms utilizing a phishing assault.

Whereas the attackers in the end succeeded in breaching the system, they had been ousted earlier than being allowed to trigger any critical hurt. In line with Coinbase, buyer funds, in addition to buyer information, are all protected and sound.

The hacker initially despatched out 5 phishing SMS messages to Coinbase workers, asking them to urgently log into their firm accounts and skim an necessary message. The messages contained a hyperlink that impersonated (opens in new tab) the Coinbase company login web page, however was in actual fact nothing greater than a malicious touchdown web page designed to steal delicate information.

Protected by MFA

Whereas most workers noticed proper via the rip-off, one didn’t, and thus gave the hackers their login credentials. After logging in, the sufferer was thanked and prompted to ignore the message. Whereas profitable in acquiring the login credentials, the attackers couldn’t do a lot because the account was protected with multi-factor authentication (MFA).

That didn’t cease them, although. They quickly referred to as the sufferer on the cellphone, impersonating the corporate’s IT division, and requested them to log into the workstation and comply with completely different directions. 

“Luckily no funds had been taken and no buyer info was accessed or seen, however some restricted contact info for our workers was taken, particularly worker names, e-mail addresses, and a few cellphone numbers,” Coinbase defined.

It took Coinbase’s CSIRT some ten minutes to understand the corporate’s being attacked, and to succeed in out to the sufferer concerning the uncommon exercise. 

At that time, the sufferer realized they’re being defrauded, and terminated the communication with the attacker.

Whereas nobody can know for certain who’s behind the marketing campaign, which follows an analogous modus operandi seen in final 12 months’s Scatter Swine/0ktapus phishing campaigns. 

Again then, cybersecurity consultants from Group-IB mentioned the attackers managed to steal nearly 1,000 company entry logins by sending phishing SMS messages. 

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By way of: BleepingComputer (opens in new tab)