More than 50% of bitcoins from Twitter hack have been sent through mixers

[o_e_l_e_o]

the truth is that most people that patronize the services use them to clean stolen crypto.

Why are you repeating this false statement after I provided you with evidence to disprove it in your last thread? A minority of funds which pass through mixers are stolen or otherwise tainted. The majority of coins being mixed are being sent directly from exchanges, by users trying to protect themselves from centralized exchanges' mass surveillance.

No, they can't because bitcoin is decentralized

Bitcoin is decentralized, but exchanges certainly are not. Centralized exchanges freeze accounts and seize coins all the time for a variety of reasons, legitimate or otherwise. If there is a suggestion that some coins are stolen, then many exchanges will freeze those coins. Binance, for example, frozen a bunch of funds which were thought to be related to the Cryptopia hack.

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[fiulpro]

The bitcoin mixers — ChipMixer and Wasabi Wallet — have received 56.5% of the 30.4 stolen bitcoins, i.e. 17.18 bitcoins (currently worth about $192,000), according to Elliptic.
The Twitter hack took place on July 15, and at the time, the bitcoins were worth about $121,000. The price of bitcoin has risen in recent days.

Elliptic said it tracked the bitcoin through its transaction screening tool and found that the hackers have sought to launder the funds gradually.
Bitcoin mixers mask the blockchain transaction trail, making it challenging to follow funds and to know where the funds are spent or cashed out.





https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/73567/elliptic-twitter-hack-bitcoin-mixer

https://www.elliptic.co/our-thinking/what-does-the-twitterhack-mean-for-crypto-aml

I am unaware of the companies have a policy to keep a track of the mixing services being performed , if they do then I do think it will be really easy for them to hand over this information to the government , at the same time for the future these services should actually make a policy like that , which won't compromise the privacy and at the same time keep logs of everything for the safe situation.

Mixing services are helpful when you are using them correctly , but if used incorrectly it may cause loss , uncompensated , causing the negative marketing of these services, they need to save the backlash from the government.

The fact that this Twitter hack happened at approximately same time means many people together worked or maybe it was just one, so even if the Government can track the Bitcoins being sent without the mixing services they can might as well make sure the guy spills out the beans .

Since in many countries Bitcoins is protected by the law , This means the Government have to intervene and make sure the people get back their money 💰 , got that they need to hire people who are familiar with the Blockchain technology like Bitcoins ( another reason why it is important for Colleges to include Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies in ).

I don't think these services are being used by people who are just involved in the negative marketing . Maybe they just needed some privacy at a moment?

[hd49728]

No, they can't because bitcoin is decentralized

Bitcoin is decentralized, but exchanges certainly are not. Centralized exchanges freeze accounts and seize coins all the time for a variety of reasons, legitimate or otherwise. If there is a suggestion that some coins are stolen, then many exchanges will freeze those coins. Binance, for example, frozen a bunch of funds which were thought to be related to the Cryptopia hack.

Thanks but I emphasized the importannce of private keys ownership in my post. For any reasons (mostly from hack investigations, money laundering investigations) governments can force exchanges to freeze BTC in accounts that they have proofs of relations to bad and illegal activities according to their laws. In such law enforcements, exchanges have no option to choose and they must freeze related accounts.

In the other words, you have keys, you have your coins. Remember the story is different if you store your bitcoin on exchanges, not on your wallets.

[snipie]

Well not surprised at all, we already had a talk about this in another topic, that was an expected move although I thought they will use mainly mixers or non-KYC exchanges, and not cashing it out directly lol!

[o_e_l_e_o]

I am unaware of the companies have a policy to keep a track of the mixing services being performed , if they do then I do think it will be really easy for them to hand over this information to the government

If they do, then you shouldn't be using them. Why would you try to increase your privacy by using a company which tracks, links, and de-anonymizes your deposits and withdrawals?

at the same time for the future these services should actually make a policy like that , which won't compromise the privacy and at the same time keep logs of everything for the safe situation.

How? How can a mixer keep logs of everything you are doing while at the same time claiming that your privacy isn't compromised? That sounds like all the free VPN providers which harvest your data and sell to third parties. As soon as logs are kept, your privacy is zero.

Mixing services are helpful when you are using them correctly , but if used incorrectly it may cause loss , uncompensated , causing the negative marketing of these services, they need to save the backlash from the government.

There is no way to differentiate between the "correct" use or the "incorrect" use of a mixer. As soon as a mixer starts monitoring and spying on their customers to make sure that every deposit is "correct", then all privacy is out the window and there is no point in using that mixer anymore.

Mixers are like encryption. The majority of people using them are using for perfectly legal reasons. Yes, some a small minority people use them for illegal reasons. There is no way monitor who is using it and stop them from doing so without completely breaking or rendering useless the entire system. No, ordinary people shouldn't be force to give up their privacy under the guise of "safety".

[posi]

If anything, I'm actually quite surprised that some of those hackers/scammers risked moving out the funds(14.4%) without actually mixing/coinjoining them lol. It just shows that some of those scammers probably don't have the slightest idea on what they're doing and some just got lucky tricking security-illiterate Twitter people by using the typical giveaway scam.

I wont say lucky trick buddy cause if the twitter hackers could make such foolish move (cashed out 2.8% of the stolen coin without the use of tumbler for all the coins) it prove that they are still baby hackers and the twitter employee which their credentials was manipulated and used to access twitter’s internal systems need to be question. Unfortunately, things like this usually die down cause thorough investigation to be performed.

[jossiel]

~snip~

The question is why use any method other than mixers at all, I mean exchanges. Just check? But this can lead to the fact that they leave traces.
Or it really is part of their plan. Given the scale of the hack, these hackers don't strike me as dumb. Although there are indeed contradictions in their actions.

It could be part of the plan but hey, we have some good news and I think also a bad news for the update of this twitter hack and scam.

Twitter hack: Bognor Regis man one of three charged

I just noticed that BBCs SSL isn't secured.

[LeGaulois]

Actually, if you read correctly the blog post from Elliptic.co, it says that only a low percentage has been sent to exchange platforms, but not only, from this low percentage, some bitcoins have also be sent to casinos and merchants.

a few percent have in fact been spent or cashed-out at exchanges, merchants and gambling services

Looking at the graph it represents about 10% which means ~$12k only. So it's about $12k split between exchanges, casinos, and merchants, a relatively ridiculous amount.

On the top of that, the guy surely sent to exchanges not strict with AML/KYC, maybe accountless exchanges, or the one without KYC, to small to have a surveillance.... Bought a few stuff with merchants not able to block/track those bitcoins or to late because the items have been delivered.
I don't know how casinos work regarding AML, so won't comment, but maybe depositing BTC and then withdraw without playing?

Seeing how big was the hack, getting only $120k is so ridiculous by the way.

[qory]

If anything, I'm actually quite surprised that some of those hackers/scammers risked moving out the funds(14.4%) without actually mixing/coinjoining them lol. It just shows that some of those scammers probably don't have the slightest idea on what they're doing and some just got lucky tricking security-illiterate Twitter people by using the typical giveaway scam.

I wont say lucky trick buddy cause if the twitter hackers could make such foolish move (cashed out 2.8% of the stolen coin without the use of tumbler for all the coins) it prove that they are still baby hackers and the twitter employee which their credentials was manipulated and used to access twitter’s internal systems need to be question. Unfortunately, things like this usually die down cause thorough investigation to be performed.

Hacker looking for which one wallet most easy and looking hard to detect the owner, always have hack cases every time but bitcoin keep stronger on higher price, We must careful how to keep safety our assets in exchange wallet or saving in ledger nano offline wallet. Will depend on our hand how to keep safety our assets and hold for long term.

[Oasisman]

Pretty interesting data and infographic.
What does "Cashed out" mean?Does it mean that they have sold the BTC for fiat money and have withdrawn the cash or it means something else?
I assume that the category of 11% "Other" means depositing the coins into some cryptocurrency marketplaces.Why the Elliptic team doesn't want to share the names of those crypto exchange platforms?
I'm sure that they can reveal them,since they managed to discover the mixing services.

That 2.8% cashed out means, the funds that has been sent directly to the exchange without mixing and exchange is to fiat. These are only small amount to avoid the KYC verification.
While the other 11% I believed is the funds that was sent split into exchange, gambling, and merchants.

They could actually disclose further info on which specific exchanges the scammed Btc landed, but I think it wouldn't be necessary anymore since the suspect has been caught already.

[20kevin20]

Ah, and this is another piece of information that will put mixers and the possibility of having a bit of crypto anonymity in a bad place. It's quite obvious that smart hackers will seek to anonymize their coins one way or another to erase their traces. What kinda creeps me out is the way you can link some addresses so easily together

[o_e_l_e_o]

On the top of that, the guy surely sent to exchanges not strict with AML/KYC, maybe accountless exchanges, or the one without KYC, to small to have a surveillance.

Turns out they actually sent coins directly to Coinbase. Not only that, but they sent to Coinbase accounts which were fully verified with copies of their own IDs, used the same email addresses as they used on their OGUsers and Discord accounts where they were selling the hacked Twitter accounts, and logged in to Coinbase from the same unobscured IPs that they used when breaking in to Twitter accounts. A simple request from law enforcement to Coinbase and now three people have been arrested. Not exactly the smartest move by the hackers.

Coinbase is an open book as far as privacy goes. Everyone should be working on the premise that anything information you send to Coinbase and all your activities on Coinbase are available to be examined by your respective government and/or law enforcement agencies.

[yazher]

That was insane! these guys plan it all well but those who are tracing them are doing some good job. This is some challenge and most of the people in the industry of crypto are watching this event. this is some historical tracing right here man, I wonder who will gonna win. I also think those scammers are not moving their BTC so well, they are easy to be tracked.

[vapourminer]

Turns out they actually sent coins directly to Coinbase. Not only that, but they sent to Coinbase accounts which were fully verified with copies of their own IDs [...]

wasnt that florida kid 17? i thought coinbase minimum age was 18. or was it just the other 2 that were arrested had coinbase accounts.

gotta read up on it a bit more. peeps saying this 17 yo dude was some hacker genius. seems only that some twitter employees are just stupid instead. but then so was that kid..  didnt he (or maybe it was one of the others) reuse addresses or something? very noob, much fail.

[o_e_l_e_o]

or was it just the other 2 that were arrested had coinbase accounts.

As far as we know it was just the other two. The details of how the FBI linked the attack to the 17 year old aren't entirely clear, but are likely due to the fact the OGUser forum was hacked and the FBI obtained a database of all usernames, email addresses, private messages, and IP addresses.

seems only that some twitter employees are just stupid instead.

Apparently he got access to a Twitter employee Slack channel, which had login details for one of their tech support tools pinned to it. The digital equivalent of writing your username and password on a post-it and sticking it to your monitor.

You can read more about it here: https://www.wired.com/story/how-alleged-twitter-hackers-got-caught-bitcoin/
You can see the indictments for the other two, which detail how they were tracked down, here: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/press-release/file/1300121/download and https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/press-release/file/1300126/download

[vapourminer]

seems only that some twitter employees are just stupid instead.

Apparently he got access to a Twitter employee Slack channel, which had login details for one of their tech support tools pinned to it. The digital equivalent of writing your username and password on a post-it and sticking it to your monitor.

thanks for the links. good reads.

i cant tell you how many offices ive been to where login/passwords were posted in the plain sight of customers/clients/patients. tell management, later see nothings changed. maybe moved the post it note to the plant next to a monitor instead of the monitor itself. or etc.

even as simple a thing in view such as an internal phone list (usually has names/positions/direct numbers) is a hackers ticket to ride via social engineering.

*sigh*

[coolcoinz]

If anything, I'm actually quite surprised that some of those hackers/scammers risked moving out the funds(14.4%) without actually mixing/coinjoining them lol. It just shows that some of those scammers probably don't have the slightest idea on what they're doing and some just got lucky tricking security-illiterate Twitter people by using the typical giveaway scam.

They could be good at whatever social engineering they used to get those emails and passwords but since Bitcoin is known as the money of the deep web and that currency that terrorists were using it was the obvious choice for these kids. They had no idea how to spend coins anonymously and the greatest proof to that is in the way they exchanged Bitcoins using Coinbase. I'm pretty sure they'll strike a deal and trade those coins for short jail time. If they don't they're dumb.

[vapourminer]

They could be good at whatever social engineering they used to get those emails and passwords but since Bitcoin is known as the money of the deep web and that currency that terrorists were using it was the obvious choice for these kids. They had no idea how to spend coins anonymously and the greatest proof to that is in the way they exchanged Bitcoins using Coinbase. I'm pretty sure they'll strike a deal and trade those coins for short jail time. If they don't they're dumb.

that $120k (now $150k?) worth of coin? i doubt the prosecutors even care about that, its chump change to the feds (well imo). these guys will be made an example of.

[audaciousbeing]

I don't expect the scammers to do otherwise. Only a fool would steal money and not plan on how to find a way to spend it before even going ahead and now we are not talking about amount stolen on the counter or in the drawer which could run into several hundreds but thousands of dollars at this time. It's actually disappointing that situations like this is only making the case for those are the other end against bitcoin mixers as a way to hide their ill gotten wealth rather than what was intended for a way to promote privacy.

[buwaytress]

Think I'd be supporting Wasabi or Samourai or any other but yeah, the fact they sent almost 15% directly to exchanges, and then almost 15% to Wasabi (it's got great CoinJoin but for the amount they were sending and with all eyes on it, I personally don't think Wasabi or any other CJ wallet right now has a big enough usage to be a good enough privacy tool just yet.

@20kevin20: mixers and any other kind of privacy tools don't need all these news, they anyway have a bad reputation in the eyes of media. Criminals use banks and audit firms all the time for billions and billions of dollars in crime but the banks' reputations are unsullied. Strange? Nah, just the way the world works.