Coinbase has been hit with a flood of lawsuits after it just lately disclosed its person data was breached, with customers accusing the crypto alternate of mishandling the incident.
At the least six lawsuits had been filed towards Coinbase between Could 15 and Could 16, which all made numerous claims that the alternate did not maintain stringent security protocols to guard person data and dealt with the data breach aftermath poorly.
In a single of the lawsuits, filed in a New York federal court docket on Could 16, plaintiff Paul Bender argued that Coinbase failed to guard the delicate private info of hundreds of thousands of customers through the data breach.
Coinbase reported on Could 15 that 4 days earlier it had been hit with a $20 million extortion attempt after cybercriminals bribed a number of of its customer help brokers to entry inside programs and steal a restricted quantity of person account data.
The stolen data included names, addresses, cellphone numbers, emails, the final 4 digits of Social Safety numbers, some checking account identifiers, driver’s licenses, passports and a few account data, akin to steadiness snapshots and transaction historical past.
Bender claimed that “Coinbase did not implement and preserve cheap safety safeguards,” which uncovered customers to “severe and ongoing dangers.”
The swimsuit additionally claimed Coinbase’s response to the incident was “insufficient, fragmented, and delayed.”
“Customers weren’t promptly or totally knowledgeable of the compromise, and Coinbase didn’t instantly take significant steps to mitigate additional hurt, present id safety companies, or provide actionable steering to affected people,” the grievance claimed.
The lawsuit claimed customers may face “substantial, instant, and ongoing menace of id theft and monetary fraud” and that the results of the breach might be long-term or “probably everlasting” as a result of the compromised info can’t be recovered or made safe as soon as uncovered.
Flurry of lawsuits make comparable allegations
Two different lawsuits filed in a New York federal court docket made comparable claims towards Coinbase, whereas a fourth lawsuit added the allegation of unjust enrichment, arguing that Coinbase didn’t spend sufficient on data safety measures.
All 4 complaints ask for damages and different measures to assist defend the plaintiff’s delicate data.
In the meantime, a fifth lawsuit filed in a California federal court docket on Could 15 made comparable claims towards Coinbase, however requested the court docket to order Coinbase to purge all delicate data it holds in regards to the plaintiffs and rent third-party safety auditors to check its safety programs, amongst different requests.
A Coinbase spokesperson didn’t touch upon the lawsuits and as an alternative pointed Cointelegraph to a weblog submit it shared relating to the data breaches.
Coinbase mentioned it refused to pay the $20 million ransom and has flagged plans to reimburse customers tricked into sending crypto to phishing scammers as a result of data breach.
In a submitting with the US Securities and Change Fee, the exchange said it expects reimbursement bills starting from $180 million to $400 million.
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The alternate additionally reportedly fired a group of customer support agents primarily based in India following their alleged involvement in social engineering assaults on customers.
Coinbase (COIN) shares dipped 7% and dropped to $244 after it disclosed the data breach alongside with an ongoing SEC probe over misstated person numbers in 2021.
The inventory has since staged a comeback, spiking 9% and hitting $266 by the closing bell on Could 16, according to Google Finance.
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Cointelegraph by Stephen Katte Coinbase hit with wave of lawsuits over customer data breaches cointelegraph.com 2025-05-19 06:01:33
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