First UK's bitcoin robbery. Stay safe.

[bering]

i wondering why the robbers know this family have huge amount of bitcoin and apparently the robbers was following bitcoin trend and more likely to choose stole digital asset rather than physical asset but indeed this is first time to heards cryptocurrencies robbery but i wish this is could be the first and the last time we heard because will be very dangerous for us as bitcoin users

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[Caledfwlch]

If there is anyone who is worried about this then its my personal opinion that the best thing you can do is hold multiple hard wallets. A sacrificial wallet which, should you ever be threaten personally or through family, you give up. The other wallet.. well quite literally don't tell anyone about it ever.

Equally, if you have a sufficient amount of BTC that you are worth robbing perhaps you could spend some of it on security or a BG? who knows lol.

[pawel7777]

i wondering why the robbers know this family have huge amount of bitcoin ...

Victim has at least 2 companies, one of them changed its name to "Aston Digital Currencies Ltd" in September 2017. The registered office of that company is also the victim's home address. This data is publicly available. Although I think the robbers got a tip/contract from someone more knowledgeable. You can't know whether he held any worthy amounts of crypto just from company's name.

[Jet Cash]

Some interesting replies about this in Yesterday's thread in the Ivory Tower.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2838558.0

[oddwh]

Such a sad story, indeed.

It's hard to protect us versus this, best way would be to split our currencies into multiples wallets as said Caledfwlch, in this way, even if a thief steal us, he couldn't know we own multiples wallets (let's hope he doesn't know exacly how much we own).

So yeah, we lose a bit, but we still have the rest protected, and we're safe.

[vaughn125]

Sad story from UK, it's all over the news today:

Britain's first Bitcoin heist as trader forced at gunpoint to transfer cyber currency
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/28/britains-first-bitcoin-heist-trader-forced-gunpoint-transfer/

Armed robbers broke into the family home of a city financier turned Bitcoin trader and forced him to transfer the digital currency at gunpoint, in what is believed to be the first heist of its kind in the UK.

Four robbers in balaclavas forced their way into the home of Danny Aston, 30, who runs a digital currency trading firm, before reportedly tying up a woman and forcing Mr Aston to transfer an unknown quantity of the cryptocurrency.
...

Other links:
http://metro.co.uk/2018/01/29/uks-first-bitcoin-robbery-prolific-trader-forced-transfer-fortune-7268576/
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5444048/bitcoin-robbery-gunpoint-danny-aston-oxfordshire-amy-jay-baby/


I hope targeting bitcoiners won't become a new trend for criminals.

And seriously, what's the best practice to prevent such cases, when you hold/have access to significant amount of bitcoins? Sure you could hide your private key (or part of it) in some secure place outside of your home, but then the risk of you (or your family) getting tortured or even killed increases. Well organised group as described above unlikely would be happy to leave with nothing.

And what about exchanges? 2FA is a prevention from hacking, but won't work at all if you're held at gunpoint. I'd be very happy to see some extra (opt-in) security features on exchanges, i.e. few days delay in withdrawing BTC above certain amount.

Thoughts?

Disclaimer: I'm just a humble crypto-enthusiast and only hold modest amounts. Plz no raid.

Edit: alternative thread (no signatures allowed): https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2838558.msg29168004#msg29168004 (thanks vintages)

to be honest, i really am not surprised that something like this really did happen.
if you think about it, it is pretty logical that criminals will also target crypto people since they can see money on doing so. and i mean a huge amount of money. which is why i am pretty paranoid about choosing who i inform about what i really do. which i think is what most of you should really consider as early as now. do not be careless. because i can really assure you that more of this is obviously about to come. not just in uk but most probably around the globe. as technologies progress, everything follows this progression. and crimes are not exempted.

stay safe guys.

[Cryptosaint$]

Yea this is going to start popping up more and more. The idea has been given to the criminals, so they are guna run rampant with it for a while.

But when you are being held at gunpoint what do you do??

[drakegon]

Damn, that's insane. This surely sends a signal to all of us crypto traders and pretty much we are all at risk. Specially by adding our info to bounty campaigns...

[joebrook]

Sad story from UK, it's all over the news today:

Britain's first Bitcoin heist as trader forced at gunpoint to transfer cyber currency
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/28/britains-first-bitcoin-heist-trader-forced-gunpoint-transfer/

Armed robbers broke into the family home of a city financier turned Bitcoin trader and forced him to transfer the digital currency at gunpoint, in what is believed to be the first heist of its kind in the UK.

Four robbers in balaclavas forced their way into the home of Danny Aston, 30, who runs a digital currency trading firm, before reportedly tying up a woman and forcing Mr Aston to transfer an unknown quantity of the cryptocurrency.
...

Other links:
http://metro.co.uk/2018/01/29/uks-first-bitcoin-robbery-prolific-trader-forced-transfer-fortune-7268576/
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5444048/bitcoin-robbery-gunpoint-danny-aston-oxfordshire-amy-jay-baby/


I hope targeting bitcoiners won't become a new trend for criminals.

And seriously, what's the best practice to prevent such cases, when you hold/have access to significant amount of bitcoins? Sure you could hide your private key (or part of it) in some secure place outside of your home, but then the risk of you (or your family) getting tortured or even killed increases. Well organised group as described above unlikely would be happy to leave with nothing.

And what about exchanges? 2FA is a prevention from hacking, but won't work at all if you're held at gunpoint. I'd be very happy to see some extra (opt-in) security features on exchanges, i.e. few days delay in withdrawing BTC above certain amount.

Thoughts?

Disclaimer: I'm just a humble crypto-enthusiast and only hold modest amounts. Plz no raid.

Edit: alternative thread (no signatures allowed): https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2838558.msg29168004#msg29168004 (thanks vintages)

That's why people shouldn't be telling anyone their business at all, without doubt there is an inside man involved here somehow, I think we should all be quiet about what we do so that we don't get any of these unwanted attentions.

[IanDev]

The #1 way thieves decide who to rob, is by hearing rumors on the street.

If you ever catch a break doing anything, try not to talk about it to everyone.

[NorrisK]

This was to be expected to happen sooner or later. The fact that transfers cannot be reversed makes it much more attractive than forcing a fiat millionaire to transfer fiat.

This is one more reason to stay as anonymous as possible and not to brag about your holdings to friends.

Another good option is to make a seperate accessible wallet that can be used as a decoy. (e.g. one that holds a few % of your holdings)

[saedasda]

This is the beginning we can see a lot more incident like this but we can avoid those incident. Personally keep your bitcoin to ledger and trezor and I dont tell or posting to social medias about cryptocurrency so they dont know that im using it.

[7788bitcoin]

Victim has at least 2 companies, one of them changed its name to "Aston Digital Currencies Ltd" in September 2017. The registered office of that company is also the victim's home address. This data is publicly available. Although I think the robbers got a tip/contract from someone more knowledgeable. You can't know whether he held any worthy amounts of crypto just from company's name.

The reason for the robbers targeting his home is obvious ,he does run a digital currency company and the robbers wont be that dump to figure out if he bluffed and showed him any wallet,certainly he was not expecting any of this and he was forced to give away what he has saved in his wallet,this where privacy is important ,we are submitting our entire details to exchanges as part of KYC and how can you be certain that those details are stored safely,it is a really scary situation.

[walterw]

Bitcoin is safe against these operations and the biggest proof of that is the first operation since 2011.
On the other hand, one must deal cautiously with Deep/Dark internet.
Save your pvt key in a safe place and try to use strong VPN.
use some safe coins like monero  with risky payment.

Have you even read what the OP has posted? This is not a digital attack and not "Deep / Dark Net", but a physical attack with handguns.
It is difficult to protect yourself if you are not prepared for it. No one assumes that you will be robbed because of btc or other altcoins.
You can hide your private key in a safe, but I'll tell you, as soon as someone hits you with a pistol, you'll give him the private key voluntarily.
Not even the best safe in the world will help. Also, a VPN does not help or another cryptocurrency.
It seems to me, as if you had actually not read the post of the OP.

The best way to protect yourself from such attacks is that you do not tell everyone how many or that you own btc at all.

[kasansa]

It's a warning to bitcoin holders. They could no more remain careless as before because now almost everyone seems to know the worth of bitcoin.

[vv181]

That is why it's so important to keep your privacy and anonymity hidden. We know cryptocurrencies have advantages in term of untraceable currencies, and the ecosystem contains a lot of anonymity. I'm sure keeping your identity private on the internet is essentials.

[tuskacz]

Forced him? How? Trader who cannot afford security company? LOL

[Justin Dowman]

Anonymity ... Privacy ... Privacy
X100

[countryfree]

Well, I guess this was bound to happen. I was expecting such a thing to happen in Texas though, and not in the UK. There are no more safe places in this world.

I think I have a solution. You just need several wallets. If you look at my computer, you will see right away a BTC icon to my wallet, but there's little money in it. Most of BTC lies in other wallets, but there's nothing to show that I'm having several wallets, which are... Elsewhere. And you would have to hurt me real bad, to force me to tell you that those wallets actually exist.

[alyssa85]

That is why it's so important to keep your privacy and anonymity hidden. We know cryptocurrencies have advantages in term of untraceable currencies, and the ecosystem contains a lot of anonymity. I'm sure keeping your identity private on the internet is essentials.

Yes - and don't brag, you just incentivise people to try to dox you.

So many people want to show off, for 30 seconds of puffing their egos, but apart from telling your wife, keep quiet about how much you have made.