Bitcoin Forum

After this...I think congress is going to come down on bitcoin in the US

http://www.bitcoinvalues.net/hollywood-hospital-pays-hackers-40-bitcoin-worth-17000-release-computers.html

it's all over the net

it's true paying 17,000$ to hackers is more efficient than paying 20,000$ to completely reboot everything from non existing backups.

Let's hope the Feds are canny enough to use the blockchain to track the funds until the thieves slip up and make a transaction that enables them to be identified.

No, it can't happen . Bitcoin is here to stay and it is not the property of any government to control it. Let's hope it stays always and grow .

Bitcoin is just the payment method involved... I think the root problem is how the ransomware got into the system. Insider job? I thought big organizations should have backup systems to allow a complete system/database restore.

This is very insane. One should never demand for money, putting keeping human life into struggle. Somehow this time it got settled. Later if such scenario occurs it surely leads bitcoin into some trouble.

How in anyway would this stop hackers?? These hackers are most probably not in USA (unless it was an insider job) and they will sell those BTC in their country and start finding their next target. The government institutions need to tighten up their cyber security and start to keep backups as it is just another very powerful virus.


They can stop people from buying/selling which will make it hard for people to use it.

i can never understand this. people always say this about Feds tracking the coins but it is not possible if they use a mixer!
i mean coins go in one way and come out in multiple transactions (from different set of addresses) with time interval between them in different sizes, how the hell can they track that?

The problem with this is the hospital itself funding the hacker. This way, more hackers get encourage of doing the same (with the expectation of getting what they want). Wrong move IMO and they should have tried to find the hacker instead but now his gone but there's no assurance that he won't do it again in some time soon. Is there a transaction address that we could check for this funding?

Yeah I highly doubt it that the FBI will be able to trace the coins once they are sent through a mixer.

That would take forever though. hackers are also smart enough to learn to mix and use different addresses and may transact with the rest of the shady individuals which can be hard to track down as well.
Authorities will have to track each of these individuals which is going to be hard for them since they don't cooperate.  so good luck to them.

I think it's America that's in trouble, not Bitcoin. Bitcoin is here to stay - embrace it, or slip further back in world trade. The US has got one of the worst banking systems in the world, you still have to rely on cheques for some international funds transfers. They tried to screw the Russian banks, and this caused the re-patriation of US dollars by many Russian businesses. This has strengthened the Russian banking system, and provided funds for investment in Russia. The US needed to keep those dollars, but politicians with myopic political views don't seem to understand the results of their actions. Their attacks On the Bitcoin concept is yet another example of this lack of knowledge and common sense.

Ransomware is nothing new, it has been around way before Bitcoin. These guys used other methods to force people to pay them. < Wire transfers / Credit Cards / PayPal > all done with fake identity documents. The government should rather use their Cyber crime unit to track down these people and convict them with harsh penalties to send a clear message.

You cannot kill a payment method, because a small percentage of people use it for crimes.

yet another media crap in desperate attempt to make bitcoin look bad. i wonder when they are going to sop.

in cases such as this blame the criminals. if they didn't ask for bitcoin ransom the media wouldn't have a legit material and they'll stick to their usual over-exaggerated and false "facts".

As Taylor said and very well:


https://twitter.com/SwiftOnSecurity/status/700138172324261889

It's simply much cheaper paying ransoms than having decent security...

85,000 USD to hire an IT security person? really? this is his salary for how long? 1 job?

even if that number is true , paying ransom means they can get hacked the next day and have to do it again and again, the hacker might even leak their security holes online so any novice hacker can get in and mess with their systems.

Bitcoin isn't in trouble.... This is the fault of the companies that don't invest in proper security measures. I used to work at a company that processes paychecks, and what I have been seeing there was just ridiculous. Computers running outdated software, nearly half of the computers didn't have a proper antivirus installed, etc. And why? Because they don't want to invest a single penny into their security. Pure rubbish.

well this is their fault after all, if they had a backup in the first place all this mess would be nullified

as long as they don't blame bitcoin for their incompetence, all those news are pointless for the bitcoin growth, at worst they could instigate a small dump...

Whats this got to do with bitcoin?  if it had been a ransom in $ or £ would you have said they where in trouble also.  i doubt it  ???

They would have probably been better off getting it in $ it is probably less trackable than bitcoin.  I think institutions need to look at there security level constantly in this ever changing technical world.  its no good to just sit back and use outdated security.

Sure Bitcoin is to blame. Not weak security system who allowed hackers to do this and not scum hackers who did this. Let s blame computers or internet for this. After all, hackers needed both to perform this shit. 

It is not in trouble now. But I think it just have a low value and many people are very negative about it. I hope later that it will be more worth.
If Bitcoin will becoming more popular later, I think then that the value will rise in the future and I also hope that many people will use it.

This should not blame bitcoin, if bitcoin should be blamed, then why not blame the people who invented the computer?

It's year salary.

Decent infosec professionals are expensive because they're rare and highly specialized.

People in charge, usually, don't understand IT security, they go with what's cheaper now, and they cannot be prosecuted because they have a crappy system.

The news is true and will be spinned to death. It was only about time anyway

I don't like this king of news about bitcoin, but in my opinion the problem is that this hospital, and lot of companies and public organizations don't invest enough on security. If they don't invest on security they will be hacked more than once a year, it don't depends on bitcoin, if bitcoin didn't exist they would use other payment systems.

How many illegal activities are taking place right now based on the US dollar and other fiat currencies?

Bitcoin is one of many ways these hackers can work....if bitcoin is not an option, another way will be found

It could be argued that the fluidity and anonymity of Bitcoin facilitates and even encourages thieves and crooks to think of new ways to generate their income, especially when it comes to holding data hostage for ransom.

Bitcoin is not in trouble, what is in trouble tho is the already collapsing fiat system. Dollar is done and they know it, so they want to stop Bitcoin because people will naturally flock into it like desperate fish trying to reach water, so they want people to be scared of it, that's why they will use whatever incident to push an anti Bitcoin agenda, and we must be ready, beginning with intercepting power grab hardforks like Bitcoin Classic and rejecting them (this is their most effective technique so far, and nonetheless it's still non effective since no one with a brain cares about Classic).

why would bitcoin be in trouble for this,ransom has being paid in fiat and i have not seen no one blaming fiat currency for that matter ;D, there were hacks sending money to proxy bank accounts ,there are many other options .  ;)

OP is just creating FUD, Bitcoin is here to stay so as the blockchain. It's just like a knife, it is dangerous to anyone who intends to do bad things using it.

It's been done. I recall one person (ordinary bitcoin user) who tossed some dust into a mixer every time some known stolen funds were sent in for mixing. Kept it up dozens of times before the criminal gave up. By adding their own dust they were able to keep tracking the stolen funds. I don't think it would be difficult for law enforcement to develop automated tools to do this with all known stolen funds and render mixers useless to criminals.

There are lots of ways for criminals to screw up and expose their identity in cases like this, and the police only need one break. Over the long run my money's against the criminals getting away with it.

I guess it's just a made-up story that bitcoin users to panic and sell bitcoin that he had. I think that made the news it is someone who hates bitcoin

Somebody is going to be in trouble, but not bitcoin. And when I see these claims of a government takeover or crackdown it is never accompanied by a method of how it will happen, or a legal argument for how such a thing would be lawful.

So How?

Oh no, it's quite real and a growing threat.

The threat is real. I am victim of this bullshit CryptoWall malware myself.
My mother's laptop was infected despite being protected by antivirus and my lifetime archives of photos were lost in the process.
I am still storing encoded version of the files hoping it will be possible to brute force the algorithm someday.

I think they will try to make their firewall more secure and strong rather than go behind shutting down bitcoin operation in US.

Oh yeah? I was behind firewall and under protection of one of the best antiviruses on the market myself. You can't have 100% protection.
The only solution I see is to dedicate time and effort to find the hacker, hunt these criminals down and put them in jail.
But of course it is problematic with the elusive nature of bitcoin...

I dont think Bitcoin is in trouble now. It will rise soon in the future I think.
I hope later that it will be more worth so we can sell it for a lot of money.

No, Bitcoin is not in trouble, not in this way.

What is in trouble though is the already collapsing fiat system all over the world...

Dollar is done and they know it, so they want to stop Bitcoin because people will naturally flock into it like desperate fish trying to reach water, so they want people to be scared of it, that's why they will use whatever incident to push an anti Bitcoin agenda, and we must be ready, beginning with intercepting power grab hard forks like Bitcoin Classic and rejecting them.

Paying a ransom is just tolerating funding the business of hacking for future victims and perhaps another attack on same company. But i guess they have to pay since its the medical records that are at stake.

ransoms were being paid long before bitcoin was created with cash, cash was not in trouble so bitcoin will not be in any trouble either.

The real issue with this is the hospital itself funding the hacker. This way, more hackers get encourage of doing the same (with the expectation of getting what they want). Wrong move IMO and they should have tried to find the hacker instead but now his gone but there's no assurance that he won't do it again in some time soon...  :-[

I agree with you man. As long as people pay a ransom then game logic shows that it will happen again. This is why the U.S. faces far less kidnapping than other nations. We do not pay, and in some cases it is illegal to pay a ransom. For example if DAESH used crypto-locker you could not pay them.

OK

Is this reliable info or just trololo?
I just don't understand why did they attack hospital this is very unethical and bad!
Maybe the hospital’s CEO, Allen Stefanek is involved somehow?
Hackers don't attack hospitals more likely corporations.. ???

I would not dignify these people as "hackers". Maybe it's because I remember a time when hackers were heroes not vandals and thieves. We should not be at all surprised to see this. it's completely logical to ransom data and does not require some grand conspiracy. There may be millions of people who would do this for $17,000.

yeah is to so much "trouble" that bitcoin has 420 more value that dollar.. :P

this is an inevitable usage for bitcoin, just because it can be anonymous but i don't see why bitcoin is in trouble because of this. it is not the first time.

Few very bad persons were performed this,
 if this is not inside job maybe?
What do you people think?

well there are not trillions of bitcoin in existence, i'm sure with that supply the value would be far worse than a dollar or euro, right now

this mean that bitcoin is massively undervalued

I am not ready to believe this kind of news. No one can get bitcoin into trouble without any doubt. Paying 17.000$ to
hackers is good joke in my view....

It's not in any trouble. I believe we are onto a good upcoming year if I do say so myself. Don't get discouraged.

Sometimes people are forced to pay ransom and it depends on how crucial the information was for the hospital. I know that paying a ransom is equally wrong and they could have taken the help of the police instead of fulfilling the hackers demands. In all this, a cryto currency is blamed for no reason.

It's not Bitcoin's fault people use it for malicious reasons but the inherent features of it make it possible to be used successfully in scams and extortions. It's not in danger if the gov wants to regulate it I think.

no they will not xDD bitcoin is safe and always best!!

Ah! Problem is part of btc interest IS not being controled :/

Bitcoin is not in trouble!
Last week a few guys robbed a bank and left with a car.During the lam they killed a young man who was hit by that car.
Get cars banned? These guys used one it for robbery and killed a person with it!!

Not by a long shot. At the moment we have been progressing pretty well. My only concern is the way it comes across to most people. More people need to start educating themselves about it before they even try it and that's what's so aggravating.

What to trouble it You don’t have to worry about crossing borders, rescheduling for bank holidays, or any other limitations one might think will occur when transferring money.
You are in control of your money with Bitcoin. There is no central authority figure in the Bitcoin network.

Yes it is a shame that bitcoin was involved in such an attack and may even have made it possible in the first place. No it is not going to put bitcoin into trouble.

An attack like this is always possible, the only thing that bitcoin helps in is them getting paid without the police/feds being on their heels as soon as they collect it.

Luckily the amount asked is even fairly reasonable compared to the 3 million the other day. Ofcourse I do NOT condone this type of things. It is never ok to potentially gamble peoples lives over this.

This is easy to solve guys. Just give the FBI a master encryption key, what could possibly go wrong? Or are you some kind of iPhone using terrorist?

Recently it has met with a great problem due to the hackers who get involved in hacking and demand bitcoin, so to have no proof of transaction. If such incident there needs a higher security advancement.

Yes it is true that Bitcoin is used for illegal purposes, but this is an isolated incident. More people will know about the cryptocurrency in the future and there will be less and less incidents like this.

Hospitals are in trouble. BTC isn't, but this is a really sad sign of the horror of our times. Bad guys used to attack banks. Could we have imagine a generation ago that criminals would attack hospitals? Happily, considering the pay of top doctors and surgeons, ransom was quite low.

Bitcoin is something that even if it falls (which I don't think will happen) It's legacy will stay around, the block-chain will still be around. As people say, you can't kill an idea.

And even if the US gov't banned bitcoin outright, the US is still only one country out of many.  But it would not be a good trend.  But hey, the price is going up pretty good in the last few days, eh?

I'm pretty sure that if the US decided to ban Bitcoin it would be pretty much done. Especially if the whole media start linking it to illegal business and terrorism financing.

Bitcoin isn't going anywhere...the price just jumped and I think will continue to trend upwards.

Join me in making some money.

https://www.cryptomining.farm/signup?referrer=56C63D23DFECB

And now it seems that the Feds got track of the hacker who didi this and already arrested him. Unfortunately, it's well deserved because this sort of situations are the ones who give bitcoin a bad name.

Bitcoin is not in trouble, just a bit of bad press - what is new for Bitcoin?  Constantly dodging bad press and manages to come out fine.  This story is very strange and seems like a direct target to Bitcoin rather than the issue at hand.

It seem that there is constantly something negative in the news about bitcoin.  But it seem that it isn't really hurting it.

it is normalistic if bitcoin is in trouble. everything has in trouble but it's not mean that it will be finished.

Hospitals should get their IT in order.. In this era it is not responsible to have a crappy IT department and security in place for a company as big as a hospital. Especially when they are dealing with sensitive information.

Who says they could've only encrypted the files? Next time they may steal the files and threaten to release thousands of sensitive personal information from the patients. This is something that should never happen and hospitals should step up and improve their cyber security for this reason.

Where did you read about this? Can you provide a link to the story?

Bitcoin is not in trouble that much I think. I think Bitcoin will have a good future. And that will be good for Bitcoin.
We also hope later that it will be more worth later so it will be have a higher value. Maybe it is now time to invest in Bitcoin.

If it's cheaper to pay for ransom than to up one's security something is majorly going wrong. But not with Bitcoin. Just wait until the next hacker will ask for double or quadruple the sum. Insane message to criminals out there to give into demands of any form of blackmailing.

what basis do you have to make such a claim?

never, have they ever stopped blaming russia? muslims? chinese ? they are never going to stop.

I don't know why is bitcoin in trouble ?
After Silk road > there is no troubles!
Wrong name for topic better try with this one:

Idiots robbed hospital as ransom they asked for bitcoins..something like that!
By this way bitcoin is no longer evil companion..

Hackers terrorists ,bad people used force to take fiat money,and keeps happening banks being stolen,ask money  to let a parent alive and return,the thing is being asked in bitcoin or fiat we are all in risk.

It's going to take more than that... but there doesn't seem to be any reason to think this is going to stop. People will get better at backing up data, but there will be large targets for a long time to come. And regular people will continue to be victimized. In the short run, ironically, it probably has helped bitcoin by increasing demand. But I agree that it is likely at some point congress will come down hard on bitcoin. Of course it can't eliminate bitcoin from the planet, but they can make it difficult enough for the average person to use that the price crashes and it is pushed mostly underground. People always think some aspect is outside of the governments reach but the gov't usually surprises people by eventually going after these things and damaging them severely.

And lets be honest, if bitcoin wasn't available these kinds of widespread ransom attacks would be much, much more difficult to pull off on this scale. Bitcoin isn't just some add on but an integral aspect of the hacker's strategy.

Bitcoin is absolutely not in trouble, it will only get bigger and more accepted.

That is my thoughts as well. There are more positive coverage of bitcoin at present in the main stream media.

Did you hear?

Someone used a gun to shoot up a school. Damnit, now congress is going to ban guns...

...oh wait.

Small difference is guns have the NRA, the most powerful lobby in the US, while bitcoin lobby is... ummm..  ???

And this is how a group of idiots is going to make all of our lives harder.

I do not see how this specific news item should indicate that Bitcoin is in trouble. There have been mentions of Bitcoin in similar articles about ransomware before.
Granted, maybe not on this scale, but this will not have a significant negative effect on Bitcoin.

Bitcoin has decentralization meaning it will continue even if banned in some countries.

You can't stop the signal, Mal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVF9lZ-i_ss)

It will continue but price would crash and it would never reach wide adoption.  Other countries would follow US lead and go after fiat->crypto->fiat exchange points.  Would be effectively dead in terms of Satoshi's vision.

Sorry, but as a US citizen I have to say the US really isn't that important.

Yes there would be a price dip, but no, the vision would not die.

And no, congress won't make it illegal because of this anyway - that's an absurd proposition.

ransomware predates bitcoin.

What congress might do is create laws requiring adequate backup of medical databases and fine hospitals that don't do it.

I didn't say congress would make it illegal because of what has taken place so far, but things could get worse. Also, the terrorist angle could come into play if it is connected to an ISIS attack for example.

Ransomware predates bitcoin but it could never take place on this scale without it. If this hospital payed by any other means it would be easier to track.

And saying congress won't do something because it is an "absurd proposition" is pretty much the definition of what the gov't often does.  Most americans thought it was an absurd proposition before 9/11 that the gov't would torture prisoners, and not only did they do it, but now the leading republican candidate is pro torture.

And to say the US isn't important in global finance is naive. If they can get enough countries to comply to shut down the economy of Iran they can make it difficult enough to exchange fiat->crypto that wide spread adoption never occurs.

Oh there's a good chance it will be tracked.

Sure a mixer will likely be used, but don't trust that mixers haven't been compromised. The NSA for example has a lot of compromised machines it allows to run for that purpose, and a collection of 0 day exploits that would blow your mind.

I agree.  They probably are developing impressive blockchain tracking.  Although the people who received the bitcoin can mix away for a long time at many places.  And send it to exchanges like btc-e for washing as well (plot twist -- btc-e is NSA  ;D)

All of this economic pressure by the US does more to damage the US rather than other countries. Iran is a case in point, they are now dumping dollars, and switching to the Euro.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/majid-rafizadeh/iran-plays-and-backstabs_b_9229384.html

Their control of the IMF and refusal to admit China led to the creation of the AIIB. Their banking sanctions against Russia led to another flight from the dollar, and the strengthening of the Russian banking system. imho, if the US tries to ban Bitcoin, then history seems to indicate that this will strengthen Bitcoin, and accelerate world adoption.

If I ever stole major amounts of bitcoin, I would send them directly to a cold wallet and just leave them until the statute of limitations for my crime had expired. With the growth rate of bitcoin, that could be very profitable.

If that was too long, I'd let them age for several years and then sell them on the black market at below market value in a country where the buyer could not be prosecuted for using them.

But most criminals aren't that wise, and those who are that wise aren't often criminals.

Yeah, waiting is the safest thing to do. If it was me though, I'd probably mix them, then buy some LTC on btc-e, then send that LTC to another exchange, then buy btc... wash, rince, and repeat. ETH has enough volume to be useful for a slow launder through places like polo and kraken.  Of course for truly huge amounts of btc, this would become more difficult. But with other amounts I think it would be almost impossible to track this way.

One of the issues with using a mixer, they can get you for money laundering even if they can't prove the original funds were stolen. At least in the US.

I think waiting for the address you sent the funds to to become old news and then traveling, importing private address into fresh never used wallet, and selling in a country where the crime didn't happen is easiest way to avoid prosecution.

Just fuck with this negative stuff. Ignore them, focus on the positive side of bitcoin. Like the tons of bitcoin charities that are around

These are very minor issues which can be fixed once the developers keep focusing of the future growth, But if such scenario's were left unnoticed then it would have a great impact on the future of bitcoin.

I don't see why you say that it is in trouble. If the hospital can't be securised, then this is the fault to themselves. If the hackers wanted to be paid in diamonds, would the medias blame the diamond mining companies ? No. This is such a blatant obstination against Bitcoin...

Whole world is in trouble with this attitude!

We need community, to initiate openly calls everyone who can hunt those bastards to do so.
Hackers and anonymous groups to find them and make examples of them.
What do you think?
I'm not a dreamer.

yeah in my country is very helpful bitcoin. many bitcoin users. are delivering aid.
maybe we need to have a container like bitcoin foundation to help others, so that the bad image of bitcoin disappear

i think that is fake..coz bitcoin value can never come down so drastically,its always constent with little ups and downs...in my country it has not decreased,so i guess its not in trouble

It is the human being who should be blamed for the wrong doing. Bitcoin can be used for very good causes.

Yes it is the government which is so corrupt and always try to blame bitcoin.
but i do not think bitcoin will be in trouble because bitcoin is not illegal.

The difference is if they demanded diamonds they'd have to physically take custody of them at some location.  So it'd be a lot easier to catch them.

Yeah its not illegal and it will be more popular in future, and we really wish that the government should come in support of bitcoin in future, that will make bitcoin more powerful.

Even if they fail to trace blockchain,they can still find the ip used to hack into hospital system.There's nothing like perfect crime,bitcoin and other technologies may make criminal think that they can't be traced but thats not true.It may be difficult but not impossible.That said it alw always disheartening to hear bitcoin is being used by criminals for illegal activities

Bitcoin isn't in trouble. bitcoin are is in good condition. Everyone love bitcoin because bitcoin are safe and make big profit . so please don't worry its safe. Thanks and godbless

seriously!

we spend way to much time talking about all the negative shiii7.

There is so many positive things about bitcoin. Once all the old white men who
make all these laws die off, young people will be making laws and changes. Its
already starting to happen. It may take 20 years like gay marriage etc but we will
evolve and so will bitcoin

I think we still have to see news like this so we are always careful in bitcoin. I know you believe in bitcoin. but bitcoin is still very young dude all could happen
so stay cautious may be true the news

True, but it'll be like a decade or two more before that happens.

@ontopic Any new reports about this incident, like are the perpetrators identified already?

Bitcoin is not that trouble now on this time, why should we think that it is in trouble if it is now stable and the value is not even going down so that is good.
I understand the most people, because they want to make some profit fast but around this time it is not possible. The price must rise for us all soon.

its old news,people have to share this news some month ago,and we dont need to worry about this news,its normally when people want to get so many bitcoin,as we know so far nothing gonna happen seriously with bitcoin in US.

I believe bitcoin is not in trouble right now as the price is really high right now

Such issues can be seen in every currency we use, but due to the anonymity bitcoin is preferred by most people. This will get rectified once the adoption increases.

What do you mean? What will get rectified? Bitcoin's anonymity? Bitcoin is not anonymous, but pseudo-anonymous. So you want it to be less or more pseudo-anonymous?

the current price isn't "really high" and it's not "low" either. bitcoin will only have troubles when there is something severe wrong with the network or when there is a flaw being found by some one... or when an alternative version of bitcoin such as classic or xt or whatever they are called win this long standing drama battle. that's when bitcoin is in real troubles.

First of all Bitcoin is NOT anonymous.
Everyone with a bit of knowledge about the tech knows that.
Furthermore there is nothing to get rectified!
Bitcoin's pseudonomity is not a bug, it's a feature!And sooner or later we will see confidential transactions implemented what will protect users' privacy much more.
Live with it buddy! And if you can not take it, nobody forces you to use Bitcoin.

yes it is in financial trouble.. to sustain bitcoin one has to provide technical support for this digital currency and also find some ways to raise the money   quickly... also we have to work on marketing materials for prospective donors to explain the organisation's purpose...

after i read that article, i guess that there are fake article.
I would believe if there is an article like that in many trustworthy website.  :D

Based on the quote we are supposed to believe and confirm it with other articles. But if the article is true devs need to put effort to avoid these type of incidents.

That's sick.... Computer failure in Hospital's might cause life's..

Yeah, lets also forbid the internet because the hackers used it to hack those hospital computers...

I think the worrying thing here is that the hospital had an exploit that could cause many people to die, not the fact that the hackers took the computers...