SendGrid, a mass email service used by big name firms like Uber, Spotify and Pinterest (among 180,000 other companies), seems to be the means hackers used to go after bitcoin exchange Coinbase.
SendGrid has confirmed that a Bitcoin client was breached through their service.
The attack is believed to have been an isolated incident – and one that did not end in any bitcoin being boosted. The concern, however, is that this attack follows a pattern similar to assaults that occurred last year and is yet another piece of evidence that bitcoin specializing companies are being targeted via their mass email providers. ChunkHost, a cloud service provider that works with Bitcoin and Bitcoin-related clients, said it was targeted by hackers through its SendGrid account last year.
Mass email services like SendGrid offer an opportunity to hackers looking to carry out spear-phishing attacks on a large scale, as customers are more likely to open an email from SendGrid without questioning what it is.
“From SendGrid’s perspective, this appears to be an isolated attack on one SendGrid customer, however we are aware that users of other Bitcoin related businesses have been targeted this week with phishing attacks via multiple email service providers,” the company said in a statement.
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