Tag Archives: security

Hackers had a field run a couple of days ago, targeting the popular retail-oriented trading application Robinhood. Almost 2,000 Robinhood Markets accounts were compromised in a spree that saw customers’ funds siphoned off, according to a Bloomberg report. Robinhood disclosed that a “limited number” of their customers had been struck by hackers who managed to gain access through breaches of personal email accounts outside of the application. “The security of Robinhood...

Brainwallets, especially those generated with passphrases from popular culture references, might not be as safe as previously imagined. Pop Culture References Make for Vulnerable Keys According to a report published by BitMEX Research on Oct. 13, brainwallets might be easy to crack with hackers purportedly setting up servers to crawl the blockchain in search of victims. A brainwallet or “mind wallet,” as the name implies, refers to storing Bitcoin (BTC) in a user’s own brain...

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is turning out to be the greatest supporter of the US cryptocurrency industry.Yesterday, the banking regulator issued a letter that greenlighted national banks and federal savings associations to hold “reserves” on behalf of stablecoin issuers. The stablecoins in the discussion are fiat-collateralized, i.e., backed by the US dollar or fiat currency of any other nation.US Banks Allowed To Hold Reserve Funds For Stablecoin IssuersOn Monday,...

Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies present numerous advantages over the traditional financial systems, including faster transactions, while paying only a fraction of the cost. The decentralized nature, meaning a lack of central authority behind them, has attracted lots of fans, investors, and users over the past decade.However, this same feature could also display some serious issues if one is not careful. Some of these problems could lead to the loss of funds, as the story of Yaniv reveals...

A recent report indicated that as proof-of-work-based cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Monero were increasing in value in 2020, the cryptojacking cases worldwide have surged after a year of continuous decline.Cryptojacking On The Rise In 2020The term cryptojacking refers to when an unauthorized person gains access to a computer for mining (or minting) digital assets. These attacks can sometimes be so precise and critical that the victim fails to comprehend what is draining his device’s...

The US Department of Justice has alleged that Joseph Sullivan, the former Chief Security Officer of Uber, has covered up a 2016 hack on the company that compromised data of millions of users and drivers. According to the DOJ, Sullivan paid the hackers $100,000 in Bitcoin.Uber Former CSO Covers Up A Hack?The announcement from the DOJ informed about a recently filed complaint against Sullivan, who served as Uber’s CSO from April 2015 to November 2017. It charged him with “obstruction of justice...

Hackers pulled off a successful ransomware attack on COVID-19 researchers from the University of California in San Francisco and received 116 bitcoins.Now, recently surfaced transcripts reveal how the entire operation played out.Phase One: The HackAlthough the name of the group was initially a mystery, the Bloomberg report said that the organization had a history of targeting health-care entities. Later on, a group dubbed Netwalker claimed credit for executing the ransomware attack on the...

The leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has assisted Ukrainian authorities to arrest a cybercrime organization that allegedly stole and laundered $42 million from various ransomware attacks across the world.Binance And Ukraine Partner To Stop A Cyber GangLast year, the exchange launched a new initiative, dubbed Bulletproof Exchanger aiming to identify and track hubs of malicious activity involving cryptocurrencies or companies within the ecosystem. Upon discovering such activities,...

Last week in the DEFCONConference, CTO of blockchain software development firm, Pyrofex, Michael Stay, recounted how he helped recover private keys for Bitcoins worth more than $300,000. The keys were locked away in a zip file, and Stay was entrusted with the job to break in and retrieve them.$100,000 For Recovering $300,000 Worth of BitcoinAfter going through his paper on decrypting encoded zip files, ‘The Guy’, a Russian national, approached Michael on LinkedIn in October last year.He had...

Ethereum Classic has been in the wars again with a second 51% attack within a week. This incursion has brought the security of the network under the spotlight again, though ETC prices remain largely unmoved at the time of writing.Earlier today, August 6, Etherchain.org tweeted that its Ethermine affiliated mining pool had disabled ETC pool payouts after more than 4,000 blocks had been reorganized.Today another large 51% attack occurred on the #ETC which caused a reorganization of over 4000...