What should we do with stolen bitcoins?
Thousands of bitcoins have been stolen from users since the virtual currency started, and yet we can see all of these thefts happen, in real time, on the block chain. We know which addresses the stolen coins are sent to, and which ones they are stolen from. We can track the life of a bitcoin through the network. Why, then, can't we simply take those stolen coins out of commission? A UK-based digital forensic services firm, Systech, has begun offering a recovery service for lost and stolen bitcoins. The service is twofold: firstly, it will use its traditional forensic data recovery....
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Hundreds of bitcoins were stolen from Blockchain.info users. The company admitted that a technical issue during a software update of the popular Bitcoin wallet created a temporary security hole, and is now reimbursing the users who lost their bitcoins. Also read: Blockchain Reimbursing Stolen Bitcoins to Users. The security hole was only open for a couple of hours, but that small window was apparently enough for hackers to take bitcoins from many Blockchain.info users. On Reddit, a user complained of losing 100 bitcoins after creating a new wallet via Blockchain.info and depositing money....
Imagine being on a chat. You think you're talking to a friend or to a co-worker, or maybe you're trying to contact a company to see about replacing something that was lost or damaged in a recent order. In the midst of it all, a hacker integrates the chat system you're using, logs in and steals all of your bitcoins. Pretty upsetting, right? Well, for a few users of peer-to-peer marketplace LocalBitcoins, that's exactly what happened, and many feel that the event is just one too many in a recent string of hackings that include an attack on European exchange Bitstamp, which resulted in $5....
Following a claim that 13,000 bitcoins & 300,000 litecoins were stolen by a hacker, a class action lawsuit and its subsequent insolvency, Cryptsy has now revealed a “reward contract” with ‘Cryptcracker’ to retrieve the stolen coins in exchange for a ‘base’ reward of 1750 BTC, approx. $725,000. In a bizarre twist to an already contentious saga surrounding controversial cryptocurrency Cryptsy, CEO Paul Vernon or ‘BigVern’ has revealed a reward contract between Cryptsy and ‘Cryptcracker’ that will see the latter get a reward in exchange for recovering coins that –according to the....
The joint Japanese and American government investigation into the whereabouts of supposedly stolen Mt. Gox bitcoins has announced a key discovery. The Japan News, Japan's largest English language newspaper, is reporting that fraud is the cause of the "disappearance of 99% of Mt. Gox bitcoins." According to sources in the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), only about 7,000 Gox bitcoins were lost due to cyber-attacks. The remaining 99% of the missing 650,000 bitcoins is "highly suspected" of disappearing during a period when Mt. Gox was being fraudulently run by an unknown party. Also....
Bter announces plans to refund 20,000 affected customers. It has been a difficult month for Bitcoin exchange Bter. On February 14th, 2015, 7,170 BTC was stolen from the exchange. The company launched efforts to trace the stolen bitcoins which led them to the mixing service known as Bitcoin Fog. In an exclusive interview with CCN, Bter officials explained that about 20,000 users were affected by the heist. The efforts at recovering the money from Bitcoin Fog have so far been unsuccessful. Bter has therefore opted to refund all of their clients who lost their bitcoins, a process that the....