Powered by eToro Blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and insider stories by TNW. INSIGHTS CRYPTOCURRENCY SECURITY COINBASE IPHONE GOOGLE PASSWORD How an engineer at a crypto-security startup lost $100K in a SIM-swapping hack

Nobody is immune to SIM-swapping attacks – and one engineering lead at a cryptocurrency security startup had to learn this lesson the hard way.

In a blog post, Sean Coonce, engineering manager at security-oriented cryptocurrency startup BitGo, has detailed how he lost $100,000 in an unfortunate SIM-swapping hack, which saw his entire Coinbase balance drained.

It all began on a Tuesday night, when Coonce noticed that his phone didn’t have any cellular service. Moments later, he received a notification that someone is trying to log into his Google Account. He tried entering his password to no avail; ultimately, he decided to deal with the situation in the morning – as it was already pretty late.

This, however, turned out to be a huge mistake. By the time Coonce had woken up, the attacker had already gained access to his email and Coinbase accounts. Even worse, since the attacker had deleted all traces of the password recovery emails, Coonce remained unaware of this development.

Indeed, it wasn’t until Thursday morning when Coonce finally realized he’d been targeted in an elaborate SIM-porting attack. Unfortunately, by then the hackers had already emptied his Coinbase funds and moved them to on-chain wallet addresses out of the exchange service’s control.