[2018-04-16] Crypto Investor Ian Balina Hacked for Millions During Live Stream

[Termin4tor]

https://www.ccn.com/ian-balina-hacked-for-millions-through-old-email-account/

Notable cryptocurrency investor and Youtube influencer Ian Balina ended a livestreamed ICO review last night when he realized he was being hacked. Balina seemed to realize something was amiss when he was required to sign back into Google to save changes to the spreadsheet he was using, saying “I have to get going” and ending the stream.

Balina took to social media to ask for the support of his followers in tracing over $2 million worth of cryptocurrency being moved from his Etherscan wallets. He said he didn’t care about the money, and just wanted to catch the person or people responsible.  

"Is there any hope for recovering his coins?"

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[darkangel11]

I find it hard to believe that he doesn't care about 2 million USD. Who is he trying to sell that bullshit? He was hacked while pushing an ICO and collecting people's money for it. Makes you wonder if the ICO is safe and it is actually going to achieve anything if he can't even protect his own money.
You don't hire a security guard that got beat up in the street the other day to guard your money.

[entrepmind23]

Some say about avoiding taxes that's why he said he is being hacked. May it be true or not, it is now hard for him to collect money for the ICO because he already lost some credibility not being able to protect the money entrusted to him. As for the statement about not caring about the money, I don't think someone would just shrug off $2M. He sure did lost a lot but maybe he got more on his other wallets or bank accounts that's why he doesn't care he lost that amount. With the technology nowadays, it is just unsafe to flaunt how much is in your account because hackers would make you a target. When you show something in the internet then make sure you have the security in your account.

[Kemarit]

LOL. That's 2 million, whatever angle you look at, it's still a lot of money I'm sure that Ian felt stupid for being hacked in Live Stream and to safe face, he blurted out that he doesn't care but we all know that he really do. Maybe he still has a lot of money in his other wallets but he need to be very fast and change password and enable everything to protect it as we all know hackers might also attack it. I also believed that he also lost credibility here as what @entrepmind23, I'm pretty sure a lot of trust is know gone after this so called hacked. And I'm sure that he will not get back that tons of money as well no matter what.

[CryptoBry]

It is amazing how this whole thing happened...being hacked while doing the streaming live! I am sure there can be a good explanation for this that I can be able to easily understand how the whole thing was done. And I am wondering if this does not mean that we really lack security precautions enough for the hacker to penetrate and snatch the 2Million worth of coins or tokens. That is not a small amount of money especially to ordinary guys like me.

[darkangel11]

There was some more development in the case as he seemed to have explained how they managed to hack him. Apparently, he was using another email address as the recovery email for his gmail account. That account got compromised and he got notified about it, but ignored it.
That's issue number one - he's a careless and ignorant user.
Now how did they manage to get his coins? It appears that Balina kept his recovery phrases on his gmail account in a normal text file. No password, no encryption.

What a joke.

[Loveboard]

Stealing crypto is still not a crime, I THINK. Not so sure, though. I guess now that the feds consider bitcoin, intellectual property that can be taxed capital gains... it becomes property... so maybe you could charge the thieves with a crime (maybe, PROBABLY).

but tbh, this is super similar to how XVGWhale got hacked. Anyone who knows that story will understand what I mean.

XVGWhale had XVG in his twitter account, and it wasn't exactly millions, but it also wasn't something trivial. I think it was over $10,000, not sure.

His twitter account was secured by an old email that he actually changed to his updated email. But, as twitter would have it, the email u use to open the account will always be usable to reset your account's pw.

So the hackers hacked his old email then got access and changed his current secured email. And then had complete access to his twitter account and the crypto within.

[FollowSynergy]

These hackers who hacked Balina have no honor. They stole money from their brother - crypto enthusiast, who wanted to share his ideas and vision with the community, popularize crypto.

Another example was half a year ago, when hackers stole crypto from bittrex account using api. The owner of that money collected funds for his son, that money should have been spent for college tuition.

[Qartersa]

Well, I do not think he is genuine in the pursuit of who stole his cryptos alone. The cryptos that were hacked involve huge amount; hence, it is unbelievable that he is only concerned of tracing who did the hacking alone. But yes, I must admit that at times we are just interested to know the culprit especially in cases wherein we know we can no longer salvage anything. This case, however, is delicate as it can affect the market of cryptocurrencies yet again- more so in this case whereby the hacking was done on the spot. People at large would not think it is staged or what because they all are witnesses to what transpired. I hope this gets fixed although I see slim chances at recovering any amount.

[RamonBTC]

On livestream really? seems suspicious isn’t it. Is this a setup not pointing the blame on him, but in the end someone accomplish that is with him do this. It is okay to look careless and ignorance if you can runaway a 2mil$ ,make sense right.

It’s coincidence or well orchestrated hacking incidents for a show? I can’t be sure, but I’m convinced there’s a reason behind it. Let see what will happen in the next episode. Secrets always does come out even if we don’t want to.

[ranman09]

That was a great lesson folks! Always make chrome remember your password so you dont have to re-sign-in again. Or better else use some fido keys.

[Kemarit]

There was some more development in the case as he seemed to have explained how they managed to hack him. Apparently, he was using another email address as the recovery email for his gmail account. That account got compromised and he got notified about it, but ignored it.
That's issue number one - he's a careless and ignorant user.
Now how did they manage to get his coins? It appears that Balina kept his recovery phrases on his gmail account in a normal text file. No password, no encryption.

What a joke.

In addition, he claims that the hackers used his college email as his recovery email for this gmail account recovery. He was notified but how ignorant he was, didn't think it was important, because it was just an old email. And then the hackers get ahold of it access his gmail account and then hacked his Evernote because that's where he stored his private keys with his password. LOL.

[Carlton Banks]

Stealing crypto is still not a crime, I THINK. Not so sure, though. I guess now that the feds consider bitcoin, intellectual property that can be taxed capital gains... it becomes property... so maybe you could charge the thieves with a crime (maybe, PROBABLY).

Do you really believe that every single time a human being invents something new, that existing theft laws aren't defined in a way that just states all theft is subject to prosecution, novelty is completely irrelevant? Politicians would spend all their time writing, debating and passing separate laws every time a new invention comes into existence if that were true


@Admins: we do actually need negMerits, some people need motivation to use the most basic logic