18 replies to this topic

[V.T. Eric Layton]

This is kinda' sad...

From ars technica:
Unknown hackers broke into Bitcoinica, a site that trades the virtual currency.

by Dan Goodin - May 12, 2012 1:40 am UTC

More than $87,000 worth of the virtual currency known as Bitcoin was stolen after online bandits penetrated servers belonging to Bitcoinica, prompting its operators to temporarily shutter the trading platform to contain the damage.

Friday's theft came after hackers accessed Bitcoinica's production servers and depleted its online wallet of 18,547 BTC, as individual Bitcoin units are called, company officials said in a blog post published on Friday. It said the heist affected only a small fraction of Bitcoinica's overall bitcoin deposits and that all withdrawal requests will be honored once the platform reopens.

Read the rest of the article --> http://arstechnica.c...7000-plundered/

Evidently, they had no database backup either? Is that screwy or what?

https://bitcointalk....21159#msg921159

I originally saw this at /. --> http://it.slashdot.o...-had-no-backups

[abarbarian]

Ha ha what a hoot. Bitcoins. Oh lordy me.  

If they catch the online bandits will they get twenty virtual years in prison for stealing loads of virtual loot ??

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Virtual or not; if something is accepted in return for something of value in a transaction, then the item accepted has value in itself. Bitcoins do have value, as they area accepted for goods and services online. They're even sold for cash. I wouldn't mind having $87K's worth of bitcoins.

Ooops! I just noticed that I hadn't posted the link to the original ars technica article above. I fixed that. Read the rest of the article --> http://arstechnica.c...7000-plundered/

[abarbarian]

Oh I know what BitCoins are. Online bandits was what tickled me and led me of into fantasy land.  

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Internet highwaymen, eh?

A thieving slimeball by any other name is still a... THIEF!

It's a good thing I'm too lazy to develop the necessary skills to be a WWW master criminal. I think I'd be pretty good at it.

[ross549]

We could start a "business!"

Adam

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Thievery.net?

[ross549]

Giveusyourmoney.com......



Adam

[LilBambi]

This is not the biggest draw from the Bitcoin Online Bandits, here's an article from June 2011:

New malware ferrets out and steals Bitcoins - The Reg

Quote

A separate Symantec researcher, Peter Coogan, has theorized a separate way online crooks could profit handsomely from a Bitcoin feature that allows users to “mine” coins by contributing CPU cycles to solving a cryptographic problem. Criminals wielding a botnet of 100,000 infected machines, for example, could generate $97,000 per month, assuming all nodes worked on the problem continuously.

And this analysis at the time by Symantec:

Bitcoin Botnet Mining - Symantec

[V.T. Eric Layton]

ross549, on 29 May 2012 - 08:48 AM, said:

Giveusyourmoney.com......



Adam

Aren't the Nigerians using that one already?

[abarbarian]

V.T. Eric Layton, on 29 May 2012 - 02:15 PM, said:

Aren't the Nigerians using that one already?

Nah that is " Giveusyourmoney.con " only slightly different and easy to make the mistake.

[sunrat]

V.T. Eric Layton, on 28 May 2012 - 10:21 PM, said:

Thievery.net?

Thievery Corporation? Oh wait...............

http://www.thieverycorporation.com/

I have one of their albums btw, The Richest Man in Babylon, excellent!

[V.T. Eric Layton]

I've never heard of them. What would you expect from some old biker f*rt who still watches 1950s and 60s television programs? The last album I bought was the Beatles White Album.

[LilBambi]

Did you have to buy it again when they changed the medium on you or is this still the vinyl White Album?

We still have the vinyl White Album.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Nah... I still have that 12" round black plastic disk version. I haven't updated much of my vinyl yet. Don't have the funds. Plus, I'm still not sold on whether digitized versions are better or worse than the old analog.

[LilBambi]

Jim still has much of his music on vinyl too. He's digitized a lot of it. But he would never get rid of the vinyl. It was analog and warm and infinite rather than limited ... it was cool, before digital was cool

[LilBambi]

And it's coming back too! Vinyl is coming back! Just do a search on vinyl records on Google and you'll see that vinyl is selling big time.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Maybe I should start servicing high quality turntables again?

[LilBambi]

Couldn't hurt!