Coinbase said cyber crooks stole customer information and demanded $20 million ransom payment

Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange based in the U.S., said Thursday that criminals had improperly obtained personal data on the exchange’s customers for use in crypto-stealing scams and were demanding a $20 million payment not to publicly release the info. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in a social media post that criminals had bribed some of the company’s customer service agents who live outside the U.S. to hand over personal data on customers, like names, dates of birth and partial social security numbers.