Binance and Kraken Foil Social Engineering Attacks Similar to Coinbase Breach

Recently, Binance and Kraken, two of the most prominent cryptocurrency exchanges globally, were subjected to a series of social engineering attacks that bore similarities to the breach that affected Coinbase. According to reports, hackers attempted to bribe customer support representatives and provided them with detailed instructions on how to contact the attackers via Telegram. Fortunately, both exchanges were able to thwart these attempts without compromising any customer data. The tactics employed by the hackers were reminiscent of those used in the Coinbase breach, which resulted in the expectation of significant remediation costs and customer reimbursement, estimated to be between $180 million and $400 million. Following the breach, Coinbase received a $20 million ransom demand after the attackers successfully bribed overseas employees to obtain customer information, leading to the termination of the staff involved and the involvement of law enforcement. At Binance, the use of artificial intelligence-powered bots and strict policies limiting access to customer data, unless initiated by the customer, played a crucial role in detecting and shutting down bribery-related conversations before they could escalate.