Comment by ArtTimeInvestor

17 hours ago

From the Coinbase website:

https://www.coinbase.com/en-de/blog/protecting-our-customers...

    What they got

    - Name, address, phone, and email

    - Masked Social Security (last 4 digits only)

    - Masked bank‑account numbers and some bank account identifiers 

    - Government‑ID images (e.g., driver’s license, passport)

    - Account data (balance snapshots and transaction history)

Wow. Why does customer support staff have access to images of the user's passports?

I also like 'last 4 digits only' as if that's not the most important parts and the part so many places use to validate your identity, the first 5 are just area and group so they're not exactly random.

  • Everyone's social security number is available. If you go download the leak referring to in this HN post [1], your SSN is certainly in it. Mine was, everyone in my family's was, almost all of my friends' were.

    The world needs to stop pretending that SSNs are secret. They aren't.

    [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41248104

    • The world has stopped pretending a long time ago. In my country SSN is public information.

Ah, cool. My name, home address, phone number, social security number, and images of my drivers license and passport as well as what bank I use.

Who else would verify the user passports if not the customer support staff? Who verifies (and photocopies! in Asia and Europe) your passport at a hotel or car rental office?

I always thought that the government ID photos were claimed to be wiped out immediately after document verification. Guess not.

  • The attackers bribed customer service agents to hand over data and documents, they were not breached directly. It's possible this stuff may have been handed over before being destroyed.