The recent news has notably increased the number of consumers potentially exposed in the incident. “We're deeply saddened to share the news that the recent data breach affects more customers than originally thought,” Trezor said on X.
As per Trezor, the additional 67000 customers placed orders from November 2019 to August 2021.
The leaked data consists of customers' email, phone numbers, names, addresses, order numbers, and shipping addresses. According to Trezor, the data was stored by ShipMonk even though Trezor had earlier received assurance that previous consumer data had been erased.
“Throughout our entire relationship with ShipMonk, we repeatedly requested and received written assurance confirming the deletion of the data, in line with our contract, data policy, and past communications. We are very disappointed that, despite receiving this confirmation, the data was not deleted in their systems,” Trezor said.
According to experts, the breach is not impacting Trezor’s own systems.
Trezor said its hardware wallets are safe and there are no signs that customers’ recovery seed phrases or private keys were breached in the leak.
As per Trezor, “All affected customers have been emailed directly. If you didn’t receive an email, then you are not affected.”
But Trezor and cybersecurity experts are worried that the stolen data could be exploited for social engineering and targeted phishing attacks. Threat actors could misuse customers’ details regarding their Trezor purchases to create scam phone calls or fraud messages.
This can be a serious problem for cryptocurrency users. A threat actor could mimic a company employee if they know someone owns a Trezor wallet and ask the target to verify their wallet or account.
If successful, the attacker could steal the target’s recovery seed phrase, which can allow access to cryptocurrency funds. “Trezor systems were not compromised, and your device is secure. But please be alert for fake emails, phone calls, fraudulent letters, and potential risks to physical security,” the company added.
The announcement comes after the August incident when 13,689 customers had been impacted by the same shipping-provider. At the time, Trezor estimated around 14,000 customers to have been affected by the breach. The recent disclosure of 67,000 suggests the scope of the incident was larger than expected.
Threat actors exploited a JavaScript file offered by advertising technology firm Adform, and modified it into a browser-side tool that rewrites crypto wallet addresses.
Adform found the incident and removed the malicious code, informed the impacted clients, and notified the authorities.
For users who visited a website carrying the modified script on July 27 and copied Ethereum, Tron, or Bitcoin may have deployed malicious code by pasting the a different address.
What should the users do?Adform has advised users to clean their browser cache as the modified file may stay cached after the fix, and to also double-check any wallet address before sending any money.
According to Adform, the code was not built to deploy software or create persistence and worked only when an affected page stayed open. Clipboard copying was not the only method of replacement; the captured sample also rewrites addresses entered straight into form fields.
According to Adform’s implementation document, the tracking code can run across a website, several sections, or even a single page. Exploiting the shared resource allowed the hackers a path into downstream websites without having to hack each one of them. Supply chain compromise happened due to the shared deployment path.
One modified address at the point of payment could change a transfer, as the impacted page stayed open.
Security expert Beaumont discovered the hack and said, "Even if you notice the address is wrong and recopy the wallet, it keeps replacing it.”
Beaumont also said that “this allows end user devices of downstream websites to be compromised with crypto stealing malware. Meaning if you visit example.com and they use Adform, example.com will compromise your device.” The file and linked domains, IP addresses, and URLs showed no detections on VirusTotal at the time.
The discovered sample consists of two malicious blocks attached to the authentic library. Their replacement strings are hidden with a six-byte XOR key. The first looks out for the copy event, attempts to read the clipboard every four seconds, and to replace matching addresses.
The second block rewrites values in textarea, contenteditable elements, and input, and restores the cursor point after a rewrite.
“Based on our investigation to date, we have found no evidence that the malicious code transmitted users’ IP addresses or information about the websites they visited to an external party. Technical analysis indicates that such transmission may have been possible, and this aspect remains under investigation,” says Adform.
A Reuters investigation revealed that cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase knew in January about a breach affecting outsourced customer support agents in India. Six people who knew about the incident said Coinbase was aware of sensitive user data compromise through its contractor, TaskUs, before it was officially announced in May.
On 14th May, TaskUs filed an SEC document revealing that an India-based TaskUs employee was found taking pictures of a computer screen with her phone. Five former TaskUs employees confirmed that the worker and one accomplice were bribed by threat actors to get Coinbase user data.
After this information, more than 200 TaskUs employees were fired in a mass layoff from the Indore center, which drew media attention in India. Earlier, Coinbase suspected ‘overseas support agents’ but now the breach is estimated to cost 400 million dollars.
Coinbase had been a long-term partner of TaskUs, a Texas-based outsourcing firm, cost-cutting labor by giving customer support work to offshore teams. After 2017, TaskUs agents, mostly from developing countries, handled Coinbase customer inquiries.
In the May SEC filing, Coinbase said it didn’t know about the full scale of the breach until it received an extortion demand of $20 Million on 11th May. As a cautionary measure, Coinbase cut ties with TaskUs employees and other unknown foreign actors. Coinbase has notified regulators, compensated affected users, and taken strict measures to strengthen security.
In a public statement, TaskUs confirmed it had fired two staff (unnamed) for data theft but didn’t mention Coinbase. The company found the two staff involved in a cyber attack campaign that targeted other service providers linked to the client.
Hackers did not breach the Coinbase crypto wallets directly, they cleverly used the stolen information to impersonate the Coinbase employees in a series of social engineering scams. The hackers posed as support agents, fooling victims into transferring their crypto assets.
According to Money Control, “The person familiar with the matter confirmed that Coinbase was the client and that the incident took place in January. Reuters could not determine whether any arrests have been made. Police in Indore did not return a message seeking comment.”
Cybersecurity experts have found a new malware threat that lures users into downloading a malicious app to grow. An advanced malware strain campaign has surfaced from North Korea, it attacks cryptocurrency wallets by exploiting the mnemonic keys of the users. McAfee researcher SangRyo found the malware after tracking stolen data from malicious apps for breaking servers and gaining access.
The malware is called SpyAgent, and it targets cryptocurrency enthusiasts. What makes this malware unique is its ability to use OCR technology for scanning images, it leverages Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology to steal mnemonic keys stored in the images of infected devices. Hackers use these mnemonic keys to gain unauthorized entry into digital assets.
These keys are twelve-word phrases used for recovering cryptocurrency wallets. There has been a rise in the use of mnemonic phrases for crypto wallet security because they are easy to remember if compared to a long strain of random characters.
Spy Agent pretends to be a legitimate application, such as banking, streaming, government services, or utility software. McAfee has discovered over 280 fake applications.
When a victim downloads a malicious app containing SpyAgent, the malware builds a command and control (C2 )server that allows threat actors to launch remote commands. Later, the attacker extracts contact lists, text messages, and stored images from the compromised device.
“Due to the server’s misconfiguration, not only were its internal components unintentionally exposed, but the sensitive personal data of victims, which had been compromised, also became publicly accessible. In the ‘uploads’ directory, individual folders were found, each containing photos collected from the victims, highlighting the severity of the data breach,” the report says.
SpyAgent has been found working in Korea, but its range has widened to other countries as well. The malware is capable of disguising itself as a legitimate application, which makes it dangerous. SpyAgent has recently expanded to the United Kingdom.
It has also moved from simple HTTP requests to web socket connections, allowing real-time two-way communication with the C2 server. It escapes security researchers via techniques like function remaining and string encoding.
The McAfee report recommends “users to be cautious about their actions, like installing apps and granting permissions. It is advisable to keep important information securely stored and isolated from devices. Security software has become not just a recommendation but a necessity for protecting devices.”