A major data breach at Coinbase has been linked to a January incident involving an employee of TaskUs, a U.S.-based outsourcing company with operations in India—months before the crypto exchange publicly acknowledged the security lapse.
According to a Reuters report, the breach originated when a female employee at TaskUs was caught taking pictures of sensitive Coinbase customer data from her work computer using her mobile phone. Five former TaskUs employees told Reuters that the worker, along with a suspected accomplice, allegedly sold the data to hackers in exchange for money.
Coinbase was reportedly notified immediately after the breach occurred. However, it wasn’t until May 14 that the company formally disclosed the incident in a regulatory filing, stating that nearly 70,000 customers were affected.
The leaked data later became part of a $20 million ransom demand issued by hackers. Coinbase reportedly refused to comply, and the attackers went ahead to leak portions of the stolen data in mid-May, prompting the company’s public disclosure.
TaskUs, which was handling Coinbase’s customer support at the time, was named in a May 27 lawsuit filed in Manhattan. The suit alleges that TaskUs failed to adequately protect customer data, echoing previous accusations leveled at the company. In 2022, TaskUs and e-commerce giant Shopify were both sued over a separate crypto-related data breach that affected users of crypto wallet manufacturer Ledger.
In January, TaskUs reportedly carried out a mass layoff of over 200 employees in India, sparking protests and widespread media coverage. While only two individuals were directly implicated in the Coinbase incident, the wider impact of the breach has again raised concerns about data security in crypto-related customer support outsourcing.
In response, Coinbase said it had “cut ties with the TaskUs personnel involved and other overseas agents, and tightened controls” to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Meanwhile, victims of the Ledger breach continue to be targeted in phishing and scam campaigns years after their data was exposed—underscoring the long-term risks posed by such security failures.
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