Key Takeaways
- Coinbase delayed public disclosure of a data breach involving TaskUs until May, despite being aware since January.
- The breach was linked to a TaskUs employee leaking customer data in exchange for bribes.
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Crypto exchange Coinbase was aware of a customer data leak at its outsourcing partner, TaskUs, as early as January, months before its public disclosure in May, Reuters reported Monday, citing six people with knowledge of the incident.
TaskUs insiders told Reuters that a TaskUs employee in India snapped a photo of her computer screen with her personal phone. In exchange for bribes, the employee and a suspected accomplice are believed to have shared Coinbase customer data with cybercriminals.
According to a January report from India-based media outlet Financial Express, TaskUs abruptly terminated over 300 employees in Indore due to project closure and accusations of fraud.
TaskUs confirmed it fired two employees in early 2025 for illegally accessing client information.
While the firm didn’t name the client, sources confirmed it was Coinbase. TaskUs stated these individuals were recruited as part of a larger, coordinated criminal campaign targeting Coinbase, which also affected other service providers.
The incident came to light after Coinbase initiated a $20 million reward program to identify and prosecute those responsible for the incident. The company stated that bribed customer service agents leaked customers’ data, but the breach did not compromise passwords, private keys, or customer funds.
According to a May SEC disclosure, Coinbase projected potential costs of up to $400 million. The company noted that although it had identified instances of contractors accessing employee data “without a business need” in “previous months,” it only recognized these events as part of a wider extortion campaign upon receiving an extortion demand on May 11.
“We cut ties with the TaskUs personnel involved and other overseas agents, and tightened controls,” Coinbase told Reuters.
In a recent filing with Maine authorities, Coinbase disclosed that the data leak affected over 69,000 users. The breach was reportedly undetected from December 2024 until May 2025.
The company is cooperating with the US Department of Justice and other law enforcement bodies to investigate.
TaskUs is one of the world’s leading global outsourcing companies. It is headquartered in New Braunfels, Texas.
The company provides back office and customer service support, content moderation, artificial intelligence, operations support, and risk and response services to some of the world’s most innovative companies.
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