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View Full Version : Couple's digital Coinbase account hacked, $24,000 stolen



Teh One Who Knocks
12-09-2021, 01:12 PM
By Lara Greenberg - FOX 35 Orlando


https://i.imgur.com/eAhOcBT.png

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. - It was the zero dollar balance in his account that first alerted Vincent Berggren something was off.

"I just thought it was a glitch or something," Berggren said.

But, it wasn’t a glitch. This was his reality. Berggren and his girlfriend, Zoe Westervelt, say they had $24,000 stolen from them, hacked out of their Coinbase account.

"We’re very good people, and we work hard for our money. We’ve both been working since we were able to be in the workforce and it just sucks that our money can be taken away from us like that."

Coinbase is a cryptocurrency app that stores digital money. The couple had a password and two-step authentication, but, apparently, it wasn’t enough to protect them from hackers.

Now, Altamonte Springs police and Coinbase have told them there’s not much they can do.

Coinbase sent FOX 35 a statement saying it takes extensive security measures to ensure customer accounts remain as safe as possible, but, ultimately, in many cases, they do not cover "any losses resulting from unauthorized access to Coinbase accounts due to a compromise of a customer’s login credentials."

"You’re storing it with those organizations with the hopes that they’re going to protect it as well and, unfortunately, we’re seeing that hasn’t been the case," said KnowBe4 security awareness advocate James McQuiggan.

McQuiggan recommends using an authenticator app for extra protection or buying a security key that requires your fingerprint to access accounts.

"This is kind of what it looks like. It looks like a little USB device you can plug into your computer."

He also recommends changing your passwords frequently.

Vincent Berggren says he’d been receiving texts for a few days before the hack and ignored them. Now, he realizes he shouldn’t have.

"I was like, ‘Oh, this is a glitch. This is just weird. Why is it sending me codes?'"

The couple says, at this point, they’ve accepted the $24,000 loss.

Teh One Who Knocks
12-09-2021, 01:13 PM
My coinbase password is 12 random characters long using capital and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Plus I use 2FA with an authenticator app on my phone. Looks like the were using SMS for their 2FA which is like the least secure form of 2FA. Use an authenticator app.

DemonGeminiX
12-09-2021, 01:34 PM
I guess it's not a big deal to detail my password making process:

I pick 4 to 5 random, nonrelated words. I convert them to partial Leet (1337) speak, using numbers, capitalization, and symbols. If there's not much I can do for a word in the Leet department, then I'll use random capitalization in it anyway. I string them all together, separating them by keyboard symbols available on the keyboard that password fields allow. My passwords can be as little as 15 characters long to as many as 35 characters long.

Now here's the really crazy part about this: for some odd reason, I have a knack for memorizing this crap really fast, and I don't forget them if I use them frequently. I don't understand why, it's just the way my brain works. I do have a text file on a usb stick that I keep my passwords updated on, and it comes in handy for those sites and apps that I just don't log into all that much. I do change my passwords on my frequently used accounts regularly.

After a short public conversation with Lance about it (several months ago?), I looked into 2FA smartphone apps and I installed one. For all frequently used accounts that allow it, I use it. Because I don't really use my smartphone as much as other people do, it gets me to use it more, so I don't constantly feel like I've wasted my money on it.

Teh One Who Knocks
12-09-2021, 01:39 PM
I just changed my coinbase password to 20 characters in length :lol: I use a password manager, so I'm not worried about them being memorable.


After a short public conversation with Lance about it (several months ago?), I looked into 2FA smartphone apps and I installed one. For all frequently used accounts that allow it, I use it. Because I don't really use my smartphone as much as other people do, it gets me to use it more, so I don't constantly feel like I've wasted my money on it.

Which app did you go with? I use LastPass for my password manager and they have an authenticator app too, so that's the one I use. I know both Google and MS have their own authenticator apps.

DemonGeminiX
12-09-2021, 01:48 PM
The smartphone app I'm using is called '2FAS Auth' (on my phone) or 2FA Authenticator (on Google Play).

PorkChopSandwiches
12-09-2021, 04:16 PM
Vincent Berggren says he’d been receiving texts for a few days before the hack and ignored them. Now, he realizes he shouldn’t have.

.

You are an idiot

Godfather
12-10-2021, 07:49 AM
You are an idiot

Right? Soon as I see an 'unusual activity' email or similar sign of any kind, I sprint to my computer and change passwords to everything. I never touch the actual emails either, even if they look super legitimate.