Daily Reminder: Watch Out for $5 Wrench Attacks

[dkbit98]

Sold his company for 75 million euros, then lost 50 million euros in Bitcoin after this attack, but at least he is still alive.
This attacks are happening all the time and Jameson Lopp even keeps known list of all Bitcoin attacks on his github page, that is one of the reasons he later started Casa.
Maybe someone from Spain can confirm this, but I think that Zaryn Dentzel was a public figure and it was known that he owns a lot of Bitcoins.
It's strange for someone who owns that much btc to not use multisig setup, but keep coins on some online account with password that is probably some centralized exchange, but maybe that saved his life.

Interesting thing I noticed is that he was posting on twitter in 2014 about WSJ article how Bitcoin price could go to $1 million:
https://twitter.com/zaryn/status/451977124207812608

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[mk4]

The news article doesn't mention that he got robbed for bragging about his wealth. He might have been targeted because people knew who he was. A successful entrepreneur who created his own company and sold it to a telecommunications giant. That sort of news goes around.

*snip*

Yeap. But the main point is that he got robbed due to people knowing about his wealth, despite us not knowing what the main cause is. And I'm pretty sure 99% of us here aren't some big shot entrepreneur. Main point being the warning, not necessarily the poor dude.

[Ucy]

It should also serve as a reminder how easily someone can steal your coin physically from you with cheap weapon if you don't take necessary precautions in securing the fund as single holder. I think it's always better to keep the amount of money you have private... (by private I mean to Yourself alone or to people that keep no secret from you, you know everything about yourselves, you see yourselves as One & can't steal from each other).    Also try to split your coin into multiple keys if you have alot on single keys. Splitting the fund in multiple parts and having special keys for the attackers with reasonable amount that you probably can set to presend to address you control when it's stolen. There should be features to protect from the $5 wrench attack.

[NotATether]

My necessary precautions:

- Buy a gun (semi-autos like AR-15 are preferable)
- Learn how to use it
- Practice physical self-defense

Then you can shoot the living hell out of anyone that tries to rob you without fearing anyone, anymore.

$5 wrenches don't stand a chance to a $2000 gun, guys.

[before anyone calls me crazy, physical self-defense is legal in (almost??) all jurisdictions]

[mk4]

My necessary precautions:

- Buy a gun (semi-autos like AR-15 are preferable)
- Learn how to use it
- Practice physical self-defense

Then you can shoot the living hell out of anyone that tries to rob you without fearing anyone, anymore.

$5 wrenches don't stand a chance to a $2000 gun, guys.

[before anyone calls me crazy, physical self-defense is legal in (almost??) all jurisdictions]

I'd recommend the same, depending on your jurisdiction's gun laws of course. As for physical self-defense, two words: Brazilian Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Trust me when I say that you do NOT want to mess with a jiu-jitsu practitioner.

In general:

• one vs. one combat: Brazilian jiu-jitsu
• one vs. multiple combat: if running isn't an option, Muay Thai

I mean for someone that has a large amount of money you would go to think that he will go the extra mile to make sure his funds are secure, has a long and complicated passwords, no one has access to his personal computer or wherever he keeps his wallet, but no they act the same as they had 0 in their account, which makes me think that they don't care about the money they lost, and also some of these things happen through online like phishing or keylogging, which is why you should always consider having a dynamic 2FA.

You totally missed the point. Read the linked articles and come back here.

[so98nn]

Well in my country if you got robbed for the coins then no one will simply care and there wont be any police case because there is no jurisdiction as far as I know for the coins. The first thing policeman will ask is how did you get those coins. Lolz.

Moreover even if I loge a FIR, it will take decades of time to solve my case and by the time the robber would have fled to some other country living his life on shores with good beer in his hand.

So by nature only we are told how to be way careful with your stuff even when you are traveling by bus or train here. So yeah, exposing the wealth over social media is the last thing I would do. The country: India

Thanks for the reminder. Thats really important one.

[killerfrost]

Just near my house there has been a robbery case, although it is not a serious problem, it has also warned people not to brag about anything on social networks.
Like it or not, we are still living in a society with many potential risks if we do not know how to equip the skills to protect and combat it. Earned money is also not happy because there will be people watching, and criminals will not forgive you if you have a lot of money.

[n0nce]

This is why you should make sure that you don’t have access to your coins. There are people in this world who will take your life for $50. You can take every security precaution available and still be at risk. I have a similar take on passwords. I have no idea what my bitcointalk password is, so I’ll never have it stolen from me by force because I don’t know it. The downside to this plan being that a pissed off criminal might murder you anyway, or make it look like you drowned.

This is what's going to happen. That's why I'd instead recommend to keep holdings as secret as possible & in worst case hand over keys to smaller (but still belieavable) amount of coin.

If a rich man gets robbed and claims he has nothing (or hands over a wallet with $5 in it), he will continue getting tortured until he gives the 'real wallet'. Should be similar with Bitcoin robberies, I think. But if he can provide a wallet with a non-negligible amount, which is though still much less than his entire savings, that could save him.

The sure-fire way is always to not have them know that you own cryptocurrencies in the first place. "Prevention is better than cure", as they always say.

saying you have no access will not save your life. it may save your investment. but not your life.

[zasad@]

My necessary precautions:

- Buy a gun (semi-autos like AR-15 are preferable)
- Learn how to use it
- Practice physical self-defense

Then you can shoot the living hell out of anyone that tries to rob you without fearing anyone, anymore.

$5 wrenches don't stand a chance to a $2000 gun, guys.

[before anyone calls me crazy, physical self-defense is legal in (almost??) all jurisdictions]

In my country, weapons can be used when absolutely necessary. To put it very simply, I can only shoot a pistol after the wrench gets stuck in my head.
The weapon is very effective at close range, because while I pull it out, I will get a few stabs with a knife or a wrench.

I heard that in the USA you can shoot a person if you are in a car, and he breaks your car with a bat.
In Russia, in a similar situation, the criminal must first inflict serious damage on you, so that this situation is a case of extreme necessity.
And still after the shot there will be a very long trial in court.

[Flexystar]

My necessary precautions:

- Buy a gun (semi-autos like AR-15 are preferable)
- Learn how to use it
- Practice physical self-defense

Then you can shoot the living hell out of anyone that tries to rob you without fearing anyone, anymore.

$5 wrenches don't stand a chance to a $2000 gun, guys.

[before anyone calls me crazy, physical self-defense is legal in (almost??) all jurisdictions]

Thats good for you mate. Not in my country, the jurisdiction does not allow to carry the weapon, not even under the name of self defence. In addition to this, the gun is only issued to the VIP's and that is also has very very harsh process to follow. It is another thing that individuals would carry illegally acquired weapons but then again the rule does not bend in pretty good sense and if you caught with it, then you are guilty no matter what.

It's better to safe guard the assets that we have by not telling anyone that we have it. Just be anonymous and we are good to go. I would be far more careful not to fall for court circles or law box. 

[batang_bitcoin]

I've always kept my cool whenever the market is pumping. I've always thought of wrench attack or worse than that if I'm too showy on social medias.
But with the craze of NFT gaming, I've got a lot of friends sharing their gains and that's totally fine to me. Although I don't do the same thing that they does, I wish them that safety at all times and as well as to me too. It's always better to remain low when you've got thousands to millions of bitcoin/crypto assets.

[Fortify]

It's that time of the year again, where our coins are worth a lot more than they were months ago.

Sometimes it feels great sharing your gains on social media, especially if you haven't had this much money in the past. While I think we need to have our egos stroked once in a while, sharing them on social media(or by just telling everyone) is not the way to do it.

https://www.newsweek.com/bitcoin-millionaire-zaryn-dentzel-beaten-fortune-stolen-masked-robbery-cryptocurrency-1645550

"In LA, people will rob a convenience store for $50. Wait until they realize they can go into the home of a software engineer & make out with hundreds of thousands." - Nikita Bier

It's a scary world out there, ladies and gents. So you better watch out.

Some quick reads:

• https://blog.keys.casa/how-to-protect-your-bitcoin-from-5-wrench-attacks/
• https://cryptosec.info/wrench-attack/

It's definitely a worthwhile reminder that some people here have $50k+ stored in Bitcoin and some people would literally kill you to get hold of that sort of money. It's easy to get complacent when you have lots of cash and assets floating around, that you might want to start bragging when the alcohol starts flowing out at the bar - but you never know who is around you that might be listening to your conversation, or what steps they might take after overhearing such things. It just goes with being humble I guess and realizing that money might cause people to do some horrible things against you, staying quiet about your wealth is probably best even with your closest friends and family.

[Coyster]

With the ideology that every Bitcoiner is a millionaire, then I consider it too much of a risk to tell people you have Bitcoin, or you deal on/with Bitcoin, I have actually had individuals discuss about how much money they have in Bitcoin or have made from Bitcoin without understanding the risk they run doing that, I'll be in such discussions and wouldn't utter a word, it's that much of a secret that even most of my close pals do not even know that I do have some Bitcoin in my possession, there are many ways to protect yourself from a $5 wrench attack, but the preliminary step and the biggest one of them all is keeping your mouth shut about how much Bitcoin you have, if people do not have the perception that they can take something valuable from you, then they wouldn't bother attempting to rob you.

[dothebeats]

This is why people should be discreet about their wealth and status, and what kind of assets do they have in order to prevent such attacks. If you are a bitcoin or crypto millionaire and almost all of your information are public, you better increase your security, else you'll constantly be hounded and followed by people with ill intentions towards you, wanting to get some money off of you.

One thing I learned about such attacks is that you shouldn't be showing off too much on social media and the internet if you don't want bad things happening to you. We live in a crazy world and crazy age wherein lots of people are greedy and willing to do nefarious things just to gain something for themselves.

[savetheFORUM]

Sometimes it feels great sharing your gains on social media, especially if you haven't had this much money in the past. While I think we need to have our egos stroked once in a while, sharing them on social media(or by just telling everyone) is not the way to do it.

I don’t think there was ever a time when it was good to tell people how much you have . Doing so, you’re letting them know that you are rich and they can easily rob you and get away with lots of money in their pocket.

So, it’s best to keep things like this a secret, and only people that are very close to you are allowed to know things like this. When I say people who are close to you, I mean your family like your wife and children, and not just anybody, even in your family you also need to be scared of some of them because they can also back stab you. Whatever I am making in investing into Bitcoin is just my business and no one else’s business, I only do it to take care of my family so it’s not the public’s business.

[n0nce]

So, it’s best to keep things like this a secret, and only people that are very close to you are allowed to know things like this. When I say people who are close to you, I mean your family like your wife and children.

Be careful with children! Everyone loves and trusts their kids, sure, but especially when they're small and don't understand shit about the world they live in, they sometimes talk a bit too much. Like, forget about Bitcoin; many children talk about how much their parents earn if you tell them, as well!

[mk4]

Be careful with children! Everyone loves and trusts their kids, sure, but especially when they're small and don't understand shit about the world they live in, they sometimes talk a bit too much. Like, forget about Bitcoin; many children talk about how much their parents earn if you tell them, as well!

Ditto. There will be A LOT of bragging to friends in the younger teenage years of most kids. Bragging about girlfriends and winning fistfights can also end with "my parents are rich and has a crap ton of crypto".

[uneng]

He should have been more cautious. A wealthy person can't be so negligent like he was on this situation when 4 or 5 unknown hooded men rang the bell. Some basic security measures could have prevented this whole situation from happening. Actually this man seems to have been so naive that it makes me imagine the possibility this assault was forged.

[SFR10]

saying you have no access will not save your life. it may save your investment. but not your life.

instead have a second wallet with small amount and give them that. tell them its all you have ever had

You have a point but that'd probably only work if they've randomly picked someone to rob, as opposed to specifically choosing someone as their target + there's no guarantee that they'd not kill you after giving them what they wanted ^{[unfortunately, it's always 50-50]}!

Maybe an exchange or a web wallet. A man of his status should know better about protecting his assets.         

There is no mention to any hardware wallet, and the fact that by providing codes to his computer and bank accounts made him concerned for his crypto, points to something more in the line of [hypothesis] Electrum or an online wallet / custodial service [/hypothesis].

Both of you are probably correct and he isn't the first one to intentionally ^{[convenience]}/unintentionally ^{[limited knowledge]} store a significant amount with a custodial service: California resident lost roughly $24 million in cryptocurrency

[before anyone calls me crazy, physical self-defense is legal in (almost??) all jurisdictions]

Not in where I am at the moment ^{[unfortunately]}! If you harm the robber in any way, they can sue you ^{[it's ridiculous]}!
^{- Your best bet is to pin down the robber, without actually hurting him [easier said than done]!}

[Pmalek]

If a rich man gets robbed and claims he has nothing (or hands over a wallet with $5 in it), he will continue getting tortured until he gives the 'real wallet'.

No one should know you are rich and you shouldn't look and act rich. That's the easiest way to stay under the radar. If you walk around town like a pimp in shinny clothes and a golden cane, people will start asking questions. 

Should be similar with Bitcoin robberies, I think. But if he can provide a wallet with a non-negligible amount, which is though still much less than his entire savings, that could save him.

Ledger and Trezor call that plausible deniability. If the thief doesn't know exactly what you have, you give him access to a wallet that holds enough coins to satisfy him. He can't know that you have other funds protected by passphrases unless you or someone else told him about it.