BREAKING: Atlanta based Bitcoin giant BitPay hacked for nearly $2,000,000!

[Gleb Gamow]

Something smells fishy... I know some people are saying the CEO and founder of this company will never do this to his own company, but I have to disagree.

It was just too easy for these guys to "hack" $ 2 000 000   .... I cannot imagine that there are no checks and balances in place to confirm/verify transfers like this.

I will not trust BitPay if this is the way they handle money transfers. The first email should already have raised some red flags.  

You think!

First email, then transfer: end of the workday on a Thursday.
Second email, then transfer: ~1 hour later.
Third email, then transfer, three times larger than the either of the first two: It's Friday morning. Let's play this game again after a good night's sleep. I'm gettin' the hang of it.
Fourth email from SecondMarket: What are you guys doing? I didn't send no stinkin' emails!
Fifth email: No prob. Come Monday, we's filin' a claim with our insurance company. All'll be square. TGIF! Let's have pizza tonight to celebrate. HAHAHA

[Gleb Gamow]

http://www.cooleaf.com/blog/the-bit-pay-warriors

The Warriors

At BitPay they also believe that their employees should have the option to choose their own schedule and work from home when they need to.

“We hire mature and talented people that we know we can trust to get their work done.” Lynette continues;

When hiring at Bitpay, CFO Bryan Krohn says they are looking for “warriors, people with grit who will do what it takes to succeed and that aren’t afraid to work hard and push themselves.”“Most of our staff consists of software engineers and there’s really no faking whether they’re getting their work done or not.”

The already chosen warriors enjoy quarterly outings such as white water rafting and bowling. On “Break-away Fridays” the group socializes around a company keg and discusses work completed for the week.

Through their efforts to create a fresh, fun startup culture, BitPay was recently ranked at number 45 on AJC’s ‘Best Workplaces’

BitPay will continue to hire self-starters with grit and passion.  These ‘warriors’ will likely continue to break new ground for the company that TechCrunch is calling “the catalyst for the commoditization of payment processing.”

"Warriors, it's Break-away Friday. I sent you another email. Warriors..."

[Gleb Gamow]

http://coinjournal.net/author/iandemartino/

By Ian Demartino

https://techippie.wordpress.com/

Co founder of Coinjournal.net

http://coinjournal.net/daily-links-91715-changetip-adds-usd-bitpay-gets-egg-on-its-face/

ChangeTip Adds USD, BitPay Gets Egg On Its Face
By Ian Demartino

People only hand over their money to a bank when they trust it, and BitPay can say whatever it wants about the theft only affecting BitPay’s profits and how they didn’t lose any customer funds, but if everyone sees a guy walk out of a bank with two bags full of cash because he asked for it, no one is going to put their money in that bank. It doesn’t matter that he didn’t get to the inner vault, people are going to go down the street, to the bank that locks up all of their money.

Likewise, people are goin' seek other periodicals to read if their current source for trade news isn't up to snuff, e.g.: BitPay only lost profits due to the hack and not customer's moneys (perhaps a given) or VC capital funds (?). Again, if BitPay charged a 1% fee for every transaction (which they don't), they would have had to process near-$200,000,000 worth of bitcoins (which they haven't) AND had zero operating expenses (which they don't) to lose all that contrived calculated profit to a successful email phishing scheme taking place during the same timeframe that Bitstamp was going through their own email phishing ordeal while their guy was supposed sick with the flu in Slovenia.

Remember when we used to chastise mainstream media for getting the facts wrong on their rags? Hell, our very own trade periodicals can't even hash out truisms when it's either hand-fed to them or failing to do the simplest research prior to publication. You guys wouldn't believe what I've passed on to our trade rags pertaining to BFL (not posted here) that I've yet to see published, yet nary an article has been penned on my findings. Fuckin' amazin'! To be fair, I got one thank you with it'll be looked into further. HAHAHA

[myveryown]

You have to wonder why did BitPay not insist on a PGP signed email from the client when requesting so many bitcoins?

[Gleb Gamow]

You have to wonder why did BitPay not insist on a PGP signed email from the client when requesting so many bitcoins?

We're still tryin' to get our heads wrapped around why Bryan Krohn wasn't using his official bryan@bitpay.com email address. Curious as to if tony@bitpay.com and stephen@bitpay.com email addresses were used during the outer-inter-office exchanges. Surely, all three weren't using gMail, were they?

[RGBKey]

You have to wonder why did BitPay not insist on a PGP signed email from the client when requesting so many bitcoins?

Exactly, for a cryptography centered community, you think we would take advantage of the tools given to us...

[Gleb Gamow]

https://www.btcmedia.org/



https://plus.google.com/111311385912101080189/posts



While I digest an email I received that may have major ramifications if true, ponder the following questions:

Is Vanessa Krohn of yBitcoin (Logistics, formally with Bitcoin Magazine) related to Bryan Krohn (fond of gMail) of BitPay?

Was David Brailey of yBitcoin (BTC Media) in South Korea during the phishing tournament at two venues (Bitstamp & BitPay) attending a conference?

http://insidebitcoins.com/seoul/2014



I almost have it figured out why none of the cryptocurrency periodicals would have me on staff in helping them conduct investigations for exposés in queue.

[Gleb Gamow]

May 14, 2013: BitPay onboards Bryan Krohn: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130514006754/en/BitPay-Hires-Bitcoin-Core-Developer-Jeff-Garzik#.Vf9yct9Viko

https://www.linkedin.com/in/krohnbryan

A successful finance and operations professional with demonstrated accomplishments in international finance, business integration, cost optimization and organizational restructure.

Described by executives and colleagues as an innovative and strategic leader and business partner. Well known for solving complex problems, achieving unparalleled results through a keen analytical ability, and exemplary execution of strategy and tactics while regularly building high performing teams.

OCTOBER 4, 2013: Bitcoin Magazine Hires Vanessa Krohn to Head Operations: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/7384/bitcoin-magazine-hires-vanessa-krohn-to-head-operations/

In the spirit of optimizing cost, Bryan Krohn persuades BitPay to hire his wife, Vanessa Krohn, to work at their publication arm for perhaps the token amount of $1/yr salary. Later, Vanessa leaves Bitcoin Magazine to join yBitcoin which was in negotiations to purchase Bitcoin Magazine around the timeframe of the phishing expedition while, perhaps, David Bailey, yBitcoin's head dude, was attending a conference in South Korea.

[Gleb Gamow]

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/19079/btc-media-acquires-bitcoin-magazine/

Looks like when the smoke cleared...

BitPay still got ~$1.8M for the real sale of Bitcoin Magazine.
The phishers got their $1.8M for puttin' in a hard day's work.
yBitcoin acquired Bitcoin Magazine.
The insurance company didn't have to dole out any claims moneys.
BitPay is out of the publication business.
And, somewhere on the planet, Matthew Neal Wright is laughin' his ass off.

[MicroGuy]

Thank you @Gleb for this fascinating investigation and thanks to the BCT moderators for not censoring this dramatic revelation.

[Mickeyb]

Thank you @Gleb for this fascinating investigation and thanks to the BCT moderators for not censoring this dramatic revelation.

Yes, this is turning into a quite of soap opera! Thanks for the investigation!

[Gleb Gamow]

Thank you @Gleb for this fascinating investigation and thanks to the BCT moderators for not censoring this dramatic revelation.

Yes, this is turning into a quite of soap opera! Thanks for the investigation!

"Thanks, guys. That means a lot.  Now, I have to reset my potato.  "

[bitpop]

So inside job confirmed?

[Blawpaw]

poor email security management led to the hack. Companies need to apply security policies to every communication channel utilized. The internet is a harsh place and companies need to keep their security one step beyond at al time.

[worhiper_-_]

Gleb made it into buttcoin! lol

https://www.reddit.com/r/Buttcoin/comments/3lst6j/bitpay_hack_exposed_as_potentially_an_inside_job/

Good job on the digging man, you're making it to headlines again.

[GermanGiant]

So inside job confirmed?

David Brailey has spoken about it...

I hate to burst your bubble, but this is patently ridiculous. Vanessa worked at Bitcoin Magazine, BTC Media bought Bitcoin Magazine, now she works for BTC Media. As this is an ongoing legal and criminal matter, I have not commented publicly, but these conspiratorial posts are just so over the top... Hope to be able to discuss publicly soon and shed some light on how sophisticated this attack was.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3lsq0n/bitpay_hacking_scandal_takes_most_bizarre_twist/cv90csp

[RoadStress]

Thank you @Gleb for this fascinating investigation and thanks to the BCT moderators for not censoring this dramatic revelation.

Here I was being bored without the BFL-drama while Gleb slam dunks it! Thanks!

[LiteCoinGuy]

Gleb is a psychopatic guy/troll (sry but you know it is true). i cant believe that anybody here believes this shit   - hopefully it is meant to be sarcastic but new members could believe that this shit is true. be careful!

[Gleb Gamow]

Gleb is a psychopatic guy/troll (sry but you know it is true). i cant believe that anybody here believes this shit   - hopefully it is meant to be sarcastic but new members could believe that this shit is true. be careful!

I have very little evidence of LiteCoinGuy being untruthful. Please heed his (or her) postings.

[RoadStress]

Gleb is a psychopatic guy/troll (sry but you know it is true). i cant believe that anybody here believes this shit   - hopefully it is meant to be sarcastic but new members could believe that this shit is true. be careful!

Maybe you can clear things for us. What shouldn't we believe? That "Matthew Neal Wright is laughin' his ass off"? Because everything else are just true facts, not assumptions. He only shared some facts.