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someone who got past their protection mechanisms.
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There was no protection machanism. IIRC the first phone hack was done with a Cpt. Crunch whistle that came with the cerial. It had the same frequency as the code that signaled the amount of money you have put in the phone.
How come this is News?
Also:
When using virtual currencies to pay for goods
or services, if you don’t enter the recipient’s
64-character public key perfectly, you will send
the funds to the wrong person.
they are just spreading
FUD.
#1 noone uses public keys directly
#2 addresses (those that are used) have a checksum, so most typos will result in a wrong address and your TX will be invalid.
No party is required by law to accept payment in
virtual currencies
AFAIK no store is required by law to accept local FIAT either. They could just refuse customers with $ or € or whatever.
Well if everything can be hacked I guess this will entice some to create a technology where websites or anything connected cant be hacked, and it also gave me an idea.
I think you use the word "hack" wrong, it just means that you use something in a way that it was not intended. So if you opened your beer with a paper, you just did a hack.
I doubt it will ever be possible to find something that can not be used in a way that was not thought off before. Humans are very creative and IMHO will allways find a way to use something in a new way.