The hacks just keep on coming

[mayuri27]

Anything that you do online comes with a risk. As technology has advanced, so has the skills and knowledge of hackers and cyber criminals. Even though buying cryptocurrencies is a way to keep your money safe from government, its still at risk from cybercrime.

NiceHash, a well-known mining marketplace, experienced this risk firsthand when about 4,700 Bitcoins were stolen from the site’s account. The platform’s CEO, Marko Kobal, had this to say in a video statement on Thursday:

“Yesterday morning at about 1am, a hacker or a group of hackers was able to infiltrate our systems through a compromised company computer.”

Based on this, the platform would be out of commission for at least 24 hours. At the time of writing, the site was still down. When the Bitcoins were stolen, they were collectively worth over $70 million.

The platform discussed the hack with other exchanges and mining platforms in a possible bid to both track and hopefully recover the funds.

NiceHash provides a space for miners to mine cryptocurrencies and get paid in Bitcoin. Kobal claims that the platform has paid out $1 billion in Bitcoin since it began operating four years ago.

The breach appears to have occurred when the hacker(s) gained access to the site by using the details of one of the company’s engineers.

“Given the complexity and security of the systems in place, this appears as an incredibly coordinated and highly sophisticated attack,” Kobal said.

However, Kobal did not mention if the hack extended to the platform’s user’s accounts.

“While the full scope of what happened is not yet known, we recommend, as a precaution, that you change your online passwords,” the platform said in a statement.

This isn’t the first instance of a crypto security breach though. Well-known Hong Kong-based exchange, Bitfinex, also had to close up shop for a bit last year when almost 120,000 Bitcoins were stolen. Based on the market back then, that was worth over $65 million.

Bitstamp, a European exchange, suffered a similar fate when their platform was hacked and they lost approximately 19,000 Bitcoins.

This problem may get worse before it gets better, especially when you throw political aspirations into the mix. FireEye, a cybersecurity firm, previously stated hackers in North Korea are stepping up their Bitcoin-stealing game in attempts to financially support Kim Jong Un's authoritarian rule.

The news of NiceHash’s security breache comes hot on the heels of Bitcoin breaking astronomical new price records, bulldozing passed the $20k mark on some exchanges. It also comes in the wake of CBOE announcing that they will begin trading Bitcoin futures on the 10th of December.

[bill gator]

These things are bound to happen when there is so much money involved; there are going to be companies that don't take it seriously enough to protect themselves minimally. There are going to be companies that do take it seriously but still cannot manage to protect themselves from malicious intent. Security and billions of dollars becomes a complicated dance to perform without someone slipping and failing. It's not possible for every business to succeed, and it's not going to be the case that every business which fails is simply due to a bad product, many of these businesses are just going to be the victim of Darwinism and hackers are going to suck them dry right out of the game.

Security and hackers are constantly evolving techniques, strategies, trying to outdo one another and it will not always be the case that security wins that battle. It's only naturally that if you have something worth having, someone is going to try to take it from you and if you're not ready to protect it from them, then it's no longer yours. Keep yourself safe, keep your coins quiet, remain a small fish in a big pond and you will never get caught; don't trust exchanges, mining websites, web-wallets or another person when there's anything you're unwilling to lose is at stake.

[Kprawn]

The problem is not with Bitcoin, but rather with the centralized nature of the service that are using it. The Bitcoin Core

developers did not program the NiceHash software. These centralized services are the ideal target for these hackers and some

of these hacks are probably government sanctioned. A lot of these exploits are too sophisticated for the average Script kiddie

to exploit. I would also not ignore the possibility that some of these hacks are a inside job.  

[Chris!]

"NiceHash, a well-known cloud mining Ponzi Scheme, experienced this risk firsthand when about 4,700 Bitcoins were stolen* from the site’s account. The platform’s CEO, Marko Kobal, had this to say in a video statement on Thursday: "Hehehe idk it's all gone. Oopsy daisy."

* Internally moved to a different wallet.

FTFY