Bitcoin Forum

Here is exactly what not to do with your coins. The OP of the thread below, was burglarized of 1,000 LTC. Apparently he had some malware on his computer. 30k gone.

https://www.reddit.com/r/litecoin/comments/6b1y6u/1000_litecoins_stolen_from_eletrumwallet/

Gotta be more careful with security and only use hardware and paper wallets for large amounts.

always be sure that you are the only one using your internet accessible device, even if that means you have to scan for malware, and spyware every hour on the hour. if someone is watching your computer and they get to see the info necessary to steal yo shit, they gonna steal yo shit. personally i would have one device set aside that is never used to connect to the internet other then to send and receive bitcoin to a single wallet on that device.
man, that had to suck for this poor sob. hopefully it wont every happen to them again. expect the unexpected. be perfectly expectoid.

That is a really sad story, with the price of alt coins increasing people have to be careful with the system because you never know what will happen if you are not careful.Be careful with the sites you visit with the lap you are using to store your coins.Play safe and be rich rather than getting robbed.

You have probaly been infected for a while and did not know nit. They were waiting for the right opportunity.

Get rid of all your hardware. Don't waste time reformatting drives and all that.  Don't buy used equipment. Don't put random USB's into your computer. Don't charge your phone from your computer. If you did already, get rid of the phone too! I'm serious.

Im speaking from experience. It hides in the bios, kernal and boot sector of your drives so you cant get rid of it. Malware they have now can NOT detect.

Google "bootkit" and "rootkit".


And be very afraid.

Really sucks for that guy, not sure how he got the malware but it blows either way. No-one should have to go through something like that, but it can't be avoided I guess.
That's also why I personally refuse to store any amount of value beyond that of the computer it is stored on at any time, and rather opt to have offline wallets so that it makes it a bit more of a challenge to steal anything. Definitely wouldn't store $30k on something accessible.

https://i.imgur.com/Gigo70M.png

I wonder how many of the people who have had coins stolen from them are using Windows Operating System based computers?

Have any chromebook users, mac users, linux users had this issue?
Have any android or iphone users had this issue?

According to dictionary, burglary is entry into a building illegally with intent to commit a crime, especially theft.
"a two-year sentence for burglary".

I thought some thief entered his house with the sole purpose of stealing Bitcoins, what would be menacing if they found him through a malware.

This was "just" a hacking, even if a big one.

Hacking nowadays are so rampant and worldwide ransomeware are indeed aggressive  . So let us be careful and be aware of the situation.

As bitcoin and altcoin popularity grows, there will be more of this kind of attack. Better arm yourself with the right knowledge on how to protect your files and computers from unwanted virus and malwares. Also, it is better to use hardware wallets to be really secure.

Losses like this make persons think crypto currency is a dangerous world and it's very risky to invest. I ask myself if this guy could did something to prevent this big loss. Security settings should be improved to prevent hacker attacks.
That is the only way to improve investors security as it's very hard to track hackers on the internet to find them in real life.

Malwares seem to be ever improving and even if you run a deep scan of your computer using malwarebytes you still wouldn't be able to rightfully assess if your pc is infected since it can be hiding on the operating system itself. No matter what the operating system is, as long as the owner of the machine is not that bright when it comes to security (and visits many unwanted sites), the machine would be compromised.

that reminds me i have to move some more funds from my hot wallet to cold storage. i was waiting for the network to become less crowded to do it, but the amount is growing so waiting is getting riskier ;)

That statement changes everything, have you had any apple product in your life to know ios doesn't get infected by any virus?
Maybe they are doing a good thing by closing the source code? laughter is very loud when you think of Bugcoin with their closed source code still crashing every 2 weeks.

Targeted in more than 100 countries on various businesses and companies. As far as I have heard it's a .js file and as soon as you open it, it'll start replicating itself and lock all your important data only to be opened by a key provided by the hacker.
Those who have some big stash of coins, be careful guys.

If someone has any amount more than 500$ and plans on getting or trading more in the future, then there is no excuse to not get a hardware wallet or add more protection for his bitcoin. Its like money , and people buy lockers for that. Same goes with bitcoin.

You might want to change the subject.

bur·gla·ry
[ˈbərɡlərē]
NOUN
entry into a building illegally with intent to commit a crime, especially theft

He was hacked. I wouldn't call it "Major" either. I mean, it's not like they took anything valuable. They only took Litecoin. LOL

First of all good work Op for bringing this post out here, this is not the first time, sadly it won't be the last time. These are basis instructions that one should follow on a regular intervals, when I had joined new to online world and that is around year 2008, I had a decent amount in PayPal, and my bad luck I downloaded some software from the fraud paypal mail, and rest is history my PayPal account went blank lol. Ever since that day, I have been ultra careful not to download any softwares, always update my Antivirus software systems. It's a lesson for all of us to, be careful not loose your coins. Hacking for Bitcoins and other alts is just going to grow, we need to be far more vigilant then before.

This really sucks!

And the way they stole it was pretty fast. Its like everyone is watching our wallet now. The moment you transferred and make the wrong move, all is swept from under you. So its really on our end to protect it as much as possible,. Hackers are now targeting crypto market and so all of us must be very very careful of not clicking anything on the web.

Man, how did you come up with this? ;D

Guys, i heard a lot that installation of ubuntu helps significantly reduce risk of viruses and malware infection. Is that right?

What do you recommend for windows/microsoft firewall is sufficient protection for pc againt malware? 

this is a common myth that linux is more secure when in the past there security holes for linux too, windows 7 i not so secure anymore, but windows 10 is a fortress it's very hard to infect if you are not stupid and install malware.exe on your computer

actually win 10 will stop you, recently i was going to run a miner(ccminer compiled by a newbie user) which was supsicious and win 10 stopped it before i can even attempt to do so, and it did not the same with the same malware compiled by a trusted dev

Terrible news, sorry for your luck.

I feel like this is a story upon which a Coinbase ad should be made.

When was Windows 10 released? Couldn't the lack of time on the market boost its near term success against malware and such?

Mac has the same process...for better or for worse.

Yikes! That hurts, I don't have that much but it sure hurts and we are grateful for the information some of us will be careful in our dealings next time because hacking seems to be rampant these days.

Good reminder on why you need to be very careful with any computer used for Cryptocurrency.
Don't download anything. Keep Antivirus up to date and run scans often. Use 2FA for any exchange etc.
If you have this much currency, it might be worth buying a laptop and only using it for transfers. Or at least run a live CD of a clean linux distro etc.

That was confusing for me also. I thought we were seeing the next step. Kidnapping, home invasions, and the like. All to get your bitcoin. One day that may be as big a threat as electronic theft. Up your game in real life if you have BTC.

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/P_d--VmZZ1U/0.jpg

Come take it! >:(

The rule of thumb with bitcoins is trust no one, so why trust an OS? I run Linux and windows 10 but I don't use either for storing my bitcoins. It's still trusting that someone doesn't get in somehow. Get a new/unused computer, run Linux in a live environment, make paper wallets with a printer NOT connected to the internet, Bluetooth or anything and store all of your large balances there. I also wouldn't hold all of your bitcoins on one paper wallet. The only people that could steal from you are people who have physical access to your paper wallet. Don't want them to have access? Encrypt it with a password. Done. This should be bitcoin 101 in my books but some people just don't take their security seriously or are very naive.

That's why I like storing on exchanges despite how much people will say its bad, I trust their security more over my own and 2FA means I can't get hacked on my side.

If you habe a computer with lots of ltc on it it should never go onto the internet as you would normally. He shoulent download things ln that computer. It should be a separate pc or a external harddrive. Never download stuff on the same pc you use everyday

That guy is probably kidding with us. Hahahah this is weird.  :D

For those who have thanked me for this thread, you're welcomed. Anytime that a story like this goes public, I think it's good to re-circulate it in the best interest of all us.

This story is a reminder of how important your behavior and knowledge of computer security is. In regards to Operating Systems Safety, Windows, LInux, etc, more important than the OS that you run, is YOUR own behavior and understanding of computer security, and this story is a reminder of how important that is.

In regards to wallet safety:


I believe that cold storage (password protected paper wallets)  or hardware wallets are best for large amounts. If you're using a paper wallet, and need to move coins from them, you can do so from clean copies of a live OS such as Tails or Ubuntu, Fedora, and there are others.

You should be very careful with the software you install, the emails you open, and the websites you visit. Always have a firewall that prevents unauthorized outbound connections. These are just some basics, and I am sure others can add to the above.

Now I don't feel so bad about the coins I lost on cryptsy. I had just a fraction of that amount when they shut down the site.

your phone has a drive with a boot sector. if you charge your phone on the computer, it very possibly may have corrupted the boot sector phone too.
next time you plug it into your new sector computer, you will re-infect it and wonder what the fuck happened.

I downloaded a miner that had malware. It was cross-platform, corrupted all of my usb's, windows and linux computers. I kept getting hacked over and over and by the process of elimination I determined. what the source of the virus was.

I replaced all of my hardware multiple before I finally figured out what was going on.

When you pull a hardrive, install a new on and new operating system and the malware is still there and you get hacked again it will freak you out

Then you will follow the above.

Here is the other thing - Chromebooks are not susceptible to malware ( unless you modify them. Now most of my computers are Chromebook.
https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/3438631?hl=en

I now  use a hardware wallet and I use air-gapped dedicated computers for sensitive stuff.

I learned the hard way but at least I learned.