Bitcoin Vigil Guards Against Intrusion and Coin Theft
Bitcoin Vigil is a project aiming to give users a new way to detect malware on their personal computers, offering a method of intrusion detection that tracks malware attempting to steal bitcoins from PC wallets. Eric Springer, a Canadian developer living in Mexico, thinks Bitcoin Vigil's idea is pretty simple: "You can just leave the bitcoin wallet on your computer, and it will let you know if you have malware." How it works. When users fund a wallet on the Bitcoin Vigil website, they can download a database file containing the wallet's information. It is effectively a wallet generated....
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Bitcoin-stealing malware has drained the wallets of many unlucky victims over the years. The more valuable and understood Bitcoin becomes, the more such attacks can be expected. Common sense security practices, like not opening random links or attachments in unsolicited emails, certainly help to lower the risk of malware infection. But unless your bitcoins funds are vaulted within an air-gapped device or consigned to a paper wallet, it's hard (if not impossible) to eliminate the threat of malware entirely. Yet a cunning new web service, known as Bitcoin Vigil, employs an unsecured,....
Another day, another bitcoin-related story of a hacking intrusion and BTC theft. According to people that have provided documentation to CoinDesk, as well as information posted on the Bitcointalk forum, the auction site Bitmit had 15 BTC stolen, after the server was accessed by an employee of their hosting company without authorization. This theft, along with the effort and responsibility of securing an auction site that has escrow functionality, were the two largest factors in Bitmit announcing that it is being sold. And although 15 BTC does not sound like a large number, at current....
The Federal Bureau of Investigation connected North Korean hackers to a theft of bitcoin worth more than $600 million from a service associated with the popular crypto play-to-earn game Axie Infinity on Thursday. Although no one has publicly assigned blame for the intrusion, the US Treasury recognized a digital currency address used by the hackers […]
The recent bitcoin exchange hack underscores the vulnerability of bitcoin exchanges, an issue that needs to be addressed if bitcoin is to gain a larger following, according to Megan McArdle, a Bloomberg columnist. (McArdle most likely referred to Bitfinex.) Safeguards have been considered, such as a virtual “exploding dye pack”, but it remains to be seen if such safeguards will be accepted. It took banks many years to develop safeguards that ultimately made bank robbery undesirable to criminals. Bitcoin Theft Is Profitable. McArdle noted that bitcoins are comparatively profitable for....
On March 1, web hosting provide Linode's servers were hacked, resulting in a theft of 3000 BTC from Slush and, most severely, 43000 BTC from Bitcoinica. There have been two major Bitcoin heists before, one 25000 BTC theft in June and a 17000 BTC theft from the Bitcoin exchange bitomat.pl in August, resulting in the exchange being bailed out and acquired by MtGox. Security is a major issue in the Bitcoin community, and many are worried that if they want to carry out a significant portion of their economic activity in bitcoins their money will not be safe. Many traditional banking proponents....