Online Cash Bitcoin Could Challenge Governments, Banks

A risky currency? Alleged $500,000 Bitcoin heist raises questions.

Discusses benefits of intermediaries - Clearcoin and MyBitcoin.

-- Tomo

 

"Pickpocket Targets Wallets at BitCoin Forum" : http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002187.html

 

More on this other Trojan : http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2011/06/new-malware-steals-your-bitcoin.ars

 

http://www.neowin.net/news/bitcoin-market-crashes---drops-below-001-per-bitcoin-due-to-hack

 

From what I've read on the incident - at most $1000 worth of bit coins was the maximum value allowed (to be transferred?, lost?, exchanged? - I've since forgotten the exact details). Ar anyrate, the Bitcoin exchange MtGox is resetting everything to before the incident.

Anyway, I thought this article was a good read (not on the point above):
Crypto-currency Security under Scrutiny (2 web pages).

-- Tom

 

The $1000 limit is easily circumvented as it doesn't count it properly. This means I can only take out a $1000 but I can go back in and take $1000 more and continue this as long as I want. Hopefully fixed soon

 

Those 500K Bitcoins that caused the flash crash weren't real dated June 30, 2011.

by MtGox

-- Tom

 

Bitcoin Mining Malware in the Wild


Trojans used to mine bitcoins

After Bitcoin-stealing malware, security researchers have identified a trojan that piggybacks on infected systems to mine the virtual currency.

...

Because of its increasing popularity and high value — one bitcoin currently sells for around $17 — the virtual currency has also attracted the interest of cyber thieves.

In one case reported earlier this month, an early adopter was robbed of 25,000 bitcoins worth $500,000, via a trojan. Security researchers from F-Secure and Symantec later reported finding malware particularly designed to steal bitcoin wallets.

However, another way of getting bitcoins, except theft, is to mine them. Bitcoin mining is similar to encryption cracking and the success of the operation is dependent on that hardware used.

Bitcoin miners build special computer systems with multiple video cards to handle the task, but hackers don't need to do that because they already have huge computing power at their disposal in the form of botnets.

"Today our analysts detected a new threat spreading in the Russian sector of the Internet – Trojan.NSIS.Miner.a," Kaspersky Lab's Alexander Gostev reveals.

"This Trojan has two components – the legitimate bcm.exe file BitCoin Miner and a malicious module that installs bcm without the user’s knowledge and adds it to the autorun registry. The infected computer then starts to generate bit-coins for the Trojan’s author," he explains.

In this case, the trojan author was part of a so-called mining pool, a distributed system where miners work together to generate bitcoins and split them depending on the computing power their contributed.

Fortunately, this mining pool used had a policy against using botnets and quickly suspended the attacker's account. However, it's likely that similar malware will appear in the future to take advantage of less sophisticated pool systems.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Bitcoin-Mining-Malware-in-the-Wild-208665.shtml

 

The latest DefenseWall has protection for Bitcoin.

 

A little correction here- it has out of the box protection for wallet.dat file for its regular client for Windows.

 

An Analysis of Anonymity in the Bitcoin System.

PDF preprint paper download link.

-- Tom

 

Bitcoin befuddles U.S. customs agents, thwarting Seattle visit by digital currency guru.

-- Tom

 

Found: Bitcoin mining bot that is controlled via Twitter.

-- Tom

 

"Malware mints virtual currency using victim's own GPU" : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/16/gpu_bitcoin_brute_forcing/

edit: Changed "Malware steals" to "Malware mints" as The Register later altered original headline.

 

Krugman on Bitcoin: Golden Cyberfetters.

-- Tom

 

The Bitcoin Crypto-Currency Mystery Reopened.

-- Tom

 

"Bitcoin Value Drops Under $3 (2euro) After Numerous Hacking Operations" : http://news.softpedia.com/news/Bitc...fter-Numerous-Hacking-Operations-228299.shtml

 

Researchers Locate Flaw in Bitcoin Protocol.

-- Tom

 

Bitcoin's comeback: should Western Union be afraid?.

-- Tom

 

Major Bitcoin Exchange Ceases Operation.

-- Tom

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/04/02/watch-bitcoin-robbery-in-slow-motion/

 

I'm no Bitcoin expert (I'm still a little shaky on doing it as pseudo-anonymously as possible) but it seems that a few precautions that even a newb like me could figure out, would prevent some of these thefts. I run the client out of a TrueCrypt container, and after every use, I move wallet.dat from C:\Users\XXX\AppData\Roaming - back to the TC container. I move it back when I use it again. I also keep ZERO dollars in Dwolla and Mt. Gox, and the bank account I use to fund, has a tiny amount in it at all times. Of course, the password to the wallet is a monster, from KeePass.

PD

 

I still have to question if BitCoin really has any chance to be truly useful for real world needs. Unless I've missed it, I can't use BitCoins to buy groceries or fill the gas tank. If I see the map right, there's only one place in the entire state that takes them, a motel.

Maybe I'm getting picky, but I find it contradictory that a currency designed to be secure and private uses so much privacy questionable content on their site. Half of it is unusable without flash.

As much as I'd like to see this work, I really don't think it will. BitCoin acceptance might get more common in exchange for web services and similar items, but I don't see those who sell the physical things we need to live accepting them.

 

FBI fears Bitcoin's popularity with criminals.

Note: The PDF download is 1.8MB.

-- Tom

 

FBI Fears Automobile Popularity With Drive By Shooters.

Uh-oh, guess they better be banned

Governments fear what they can not control.

PD