Insider Threats in the Spotlight: How Human Risk Management Could Have Helped Prevent the Coinbase Breach

The recent security breach at Coinbase, which compromised more than 69,000 customer records and led to a reimbursement commitment of up to $400 million, has sent shockwaves through the crypto industry. While digital asset platforms are often focused on protecting themselves from external cyberattacks, this incident is a powerful reminder that the most significant threats can come from within.

Danger within:

In this case, the breach was not caused by a sophisticated hacker halfway across the world, but by rogue insiders—individuals trusted with sensitive access who chose to abuse that privilege. These are the hardest threats to detect and the most damaging when they succeed. They bypass traditional perimeter defenses and exploit a lack of internal controls or oversight.

This is precisely where Human Risk Management and comprehensive screening protocols come into play.

Human Risk Management:

Traditional background checks are no longer sufficient in an environment where individuals have access to millions in assets, sensitive data, and proprietary technologies. A full-spectrum human risk management approach includes ongoing due diligence, behavioral monitoring, insider threat modeling, and a clear framework for escalation when red flags appear.

Pre-employment screening should be robust—verifying not only credentials and criminal records but also financial pressures, conflicts of interest, and behavioral tendencies that might indicate a risk. Post-employment monitoring is just as critical. People change, circumstances shift, and risks evolve over time.

Imagine if Coinbase had implemented an advanced human risk program: continuous screening could have flagged unusual behaviors or financial distress, while layered access controls and risk scoring systems might have isolated high-risk individuals before they could do harm.

This isn’t about distrust—it’s about accountability, safety, and preparedness. In sectors like finance, crypto, and high-value tech, human risk is not just an HR concern—it’s a core element of security strategy.

Conclusion:

The Coinbase breach must serve as a wake-up call. Organizations cannot afford to treat human risk as an afterthought. The tools exist. The methodologies are proven. What’s needed now is adoption, investment, and leadership willing to make human-centric security a top priority.

In today’s landscape, protecting systems without trustworthy people is simply not enough.