Bitcoin Forum

As you might already know , KeepKey emails has been hacked on the christmas day.
Hardware wallet manufacturer KeepKey is offering 30 Bitcoins ($30,400) as a reward for the capture of a hacker who gained access to emails and customer information on Christmas Day.

If you are up to the job , you can read more details on cointelegraph or contact them.

Wow, not the best news for Hardware Wallet makers.

Yeah considering they're KeepKey and considered one of the best. I've always preferred paper wallets for cold storage rather than hardware wallets anyway.

For real, I don't know why people hate paper wallets so bad. You can laminate it to last longer or make the private key discrete (i.e. hidden in a pamphlet text) or whatever. It doesn't have to be a flashy paper wallet with BITCOIN written all over it.

It all depends upon individual preferences,most of them purchases hardware wallet because they think it is the best way to keep their assets for a very long time rather than taking a print out and giving it out for lamination and you never know what will happen  :D they could always take a xerox before laminating .

I don't understand either. Especially when we're talking encrypted multisig paper wallets for cold storage, you coins could be impenetrable if implemented properly.

The phrase "Paper Wallet" is really not the best. Because the Private Key can be stored in a text file, print out, picture of QR code in your phone, etc. I like to use paper wallet generators and other open source wallet generators to get my private keys, then import.

The lesson we should all have learned by now is.... ALWAYS have the private keys to your wallets stored securely some where. Import the private keys into your wallets, whether online or hardware, whenever you want to spend. And only send enough that you need, and never store online for extended periods of time.

These hardware wallets are basically mini computers that only connect to the internet when you send/receive. The problem is still the same... you can lose your passwords, lose the hardware wallet, or someone can steal your wallet and your passwords.

From what I can see, they've provided no information whatsoever.

https://www.keepkey.com/2016/12/31/message-founder-email-breach/

It just says a buonty is being offered and says what happened.

Anyone got any information related to this? Would be interested.

That, and it needs a centralized service to support it, and it is these centralized services that function as the weak leak in the chain. Centralized services are operated by humans and humans can be fooled, bribed and forced to give out sensitive information. I would rather have full control and generate my own private keys, than working through these centralized services. ^hmmmmm^

These are just scare tactics without any bloody information no one can find shit and they are not providing enough information regarding the capture of the hacker.I hope they want the hacker to come in front of them and reveal them self so that they can give him the 30 bitcoins .  :D looks like its just an advertisement stunt

Is this one of those attempts to drive down the price again? I swear that hacks like these tend to happen a lot when BTC is reaching important milestones in its development and value. Is there really a conspiracy behind this and should we be worried? Maybe we should withdraw our coins from the exchanges just to be safe. I feel like there will be a serious hack in one of the popular and bigger exchanges soon.

If I I remember correct there was a post here just before or around Christmas that hackers are coming and indeed they did come. Let's assume that the hacking was genuine, what ways are actually there for normal people like us to track them down. How do we believe that it won't be a insider job, they could have done it claimed insurance if any and then say we were hacked, normally it happens right it's always the insider person. But it's sad if such hacks continue, people just want easy money and here we spend time earnings satoshi's, hate hacking

I do not know about a conspiracy, but i just opened a thread and explained, that it makes sense to me that as a hacker you wait, with everything in place for the hack, for the price to increase. So now is a good time for hackers.

I just wonder about the amount of the bounty. Is it much? Is this how much this data and the customer is worth to KeepKey? 

The same you can say with paper wallet, what if you lost it or misplaced it or it got steal , then you will be facing the same problem. So i think no wallet gives you permanent solutions, it is upto the user to keep secure and if anything is happening then it is the users faulty no the hardware or desktop or paper wallet fault. Everyone have their own security options. Even if you are using paper wallet then it is clear that you still wanted to use the fiat currency format in bitcoin also.

i find it cumbersome it's more easy and fast to just plug a usb key and put the wallet there or all your wallets that you have


eh you really don't want to attempt to dump with 30 btc, it will do nothing to the market, hell even bitfinxex hack with its big amount of bitcoin, did not put a real dent, and you are talking about 30 btc that might impact the volume...

this is just another case of incompetence by who control the email...

makes sense and i agree with you that this is just a fresh way to have the brand advertised. noone can find who they are, if they didn't release an enough information to support the investigation and get the attacker caught up. so far nothing .

So this attacker was so naive as to fall on such a low blow?


A very interesting story to follow the unfolding of events.

If they aren't able to find any information about the hacker, I doubt anyone will. First of all, Bitcoin is anonymous and almost completely untraceable. If you deposit money at a local ATM in a non-supervised place, there's no way anyone can find who you are (except your ISP maybe, by looking over your history). Most Bitcoin 'hacks' never got info about the hackers.

Hey, I am the hacker, catch me now and we will share the prize 50:50.  :D I have stolen a lot from keepkey. Please contact me in deepweb for further conversation LOL.
Well,  I think I am not the only one who can make joke here  :P

Rather unfortunate.... They should get the best hands to run their systems to avoid future reocurrence......

wooo, how did it happen? , It makes me wonder, could the security of the BTC network and their security is weak? And I began to doubt the safety of users every existing websites BTC

If bitcoin is completely untraceable then why your transaction history is saved up in the blockchain and can be traced through blockchain explorer? and Why your relay IP is recorded?. And I think that almost all of ATM in this world already have some sort of security camera because it's about money and people will always seeking the chance to get it when there's an opportunity for them and if a bank having a "non-supervised" ATM then it's as the same as letting your precious getting stolen easily by not securing it but maybe this kind of ATM still exist however there must be some skilled individual out there who can surpasses a group's abilities, some geniuses maybe.

30 BTC is ok if you want to help out and get something in return. But if Keepkey really wanted to catch the hacker they should offer a higher bounty and not something announced in public. Most of these bounty offers are only good for appeasing their customers so that they could pretend they are doing something to find the hacker.

In the end, a bought account will get the reward and we would be made to believe that they are working hard to fix the wallet security.

Even the award is good I don't know how could anyone find the hacker unless some insider or hackers close person who has information. Otherwise is almost impossible. Or that he reports himself, ha, ha.  ;D
Was this reported to police, was some kind of investigation conducted?

It is a possibility that such announcement is just a show-off to cover up their shortcomings. They are a very big company and can equip themselves them a very firm anti-hacking security devices and softwares into their system. The fact that they are being hacked simply means that they are not well equipped in this kind of business or possibly theres an insider within the site itself.

Going after the hacker is not the right idea. You should spend that btc to hire a security team to look at your systems. Fix the vulnerability instead of playing cat and mouse with some russian hacker.

And to come to think that I was going to get one of these just before Christmas.
Glad I didn't have enough money or bitcoin the first place (for once in my life! ;) ) to not be able to get one.
I sure hope the other hardware wallets have more security in place than they do or have atleast learned from their failure on this one.

this is just emails isn't it? either way i've always had a slightly funny feeling about any non paper wallet. i'll stick with what has worked so far.

very interesting, is it possible the person taking bitcoin will unfold? How did it happen ? then how corporate responsibility

Yes I am agree with you. we also can use good quality paper to print Bitcoin and than laminate that paper, Thus we can store Bitcoin like normal paper currency decreasing the fear of loosing it.

Its not like the funds of users has been stolen (at least not that I'm aware of) and bitcoin network has nothing to do with it , Its related to their website and their security procedures.
You should definitely think twice about storing your bitcoin into a bitcoin website (exchange or online wallet). Its never safe.

If anyone is wondering how the hacking was executed this is the confirmation message from the KeepKey CEO on Reddit:

sms 2fa is a big no no.

Why do you think that they are a big company? There are not, they are a start up. In fact most of the BTC companies have never made it past the series B funding round. So before you make a comment, step back and think first.

Personally speaking  I do not care if the Keepkey's reward is big or not. What concerns me is that a company engaged with HD wallets and must be at the highest level of security could not  prevent their systems to be compromised by hackers attack. Sadly Keepkey lost its reputation. This incident will costs her  much more money than big reward they provide to capture the hacker.