[Emergency ANN] Bitcoinica site is taken offline for security investigation

[zhoutong]

New thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=84042

Today, we have discovered a suspicious Bitcoin transaction that doesn't seem to be initiated by any one of the company owners. Some of them are not online at the moment so this is not conclusive.

Suspicious transaction:

  {
        "account" : "",
        "address" : "182tGyiczhXSSCTciVujNRkkMw1zQxUVhp",
        "category" : "send",
        "amount" : -18547.66867623,
        "fee" : 0.00000000,
        "blockhash" : "00000000000003f6bfd3e2fcbf76091853b28be234b5473a67f89b9d5bee019c",
        "blockindex" : 1,
        "txid" : "7a22917744aa9ed740faf3068a2f895424ed816ed1a04012b47df7a493f056e8",
        "time" : 1336738723
    },

We have contacted Rackspace to suspend all our servers and lock down our accounts. All your trading and financial data is safe (as far as I know), apart from the Bitcoin loss.

Thank you for your patience and understanding while we investigate this issue in detail.

[davout]

"amount" : -18547.66867623

Whoops!

[unclescrooge]

18000 btc? Oh my god that's harsh

[unclescrooge]

And you know why the price dropped today

Buy opportunity guys

[ineededausername]

oh hell no, not again!

Look out for CoinExchanger's "Thank You" thread!

[PLATO]

Sounds like u got ZHOU TONGED

[zhoutong]

Today, we have discovered a suspicious Bitcoin transaction that doesn't seem to be initiated by any one of the company owners. Some of them are not online at the moment so this is not conclusive.

Suspicious transaction:

  {
        "account" : "",
        "address" : "182tGyiczhXSSCTciVujNRkkMw1zQxUVhp",
        "category" : "send",
        "amount" : -18547.66867623,
        "fee" : 0.00000000,
        "blockhash" : "00000000000003f6bfd3e2fcbf76091853b28be234b5473a67f89b9d5bee019c",
        "blockindex" : 1,
        "txid" : "7a22917744aa9ed740faf3068a2f895424ed816ed1a04012b47df7a493f056e8",
        "time" : 1336738723
    },

We have contacted Rackspace to suspend all our servers and lock down our accounts. All your trading and financial data is safe (as far as I know), apart from the Bitcoin loss.

Thank you for your patience and understanding while we investigate this issue in detail.

It's really hard to believe that after the linode debacle, you guys are
still leaving that many coins on hosted systems.

Please learn about offline transactions and how to properly decouple
the wallet from your trading system.

Reading the armory threads would be a good place to start.

We have over 80% of our Bitcoins in offline wallets at the moment before the attack. We had to keep a large balance because the withdrawals are huge!

[ataranlen]

This is very interesting. Hopefully someone actually knows about the transfer.

[zhoutong]

We have over 80% of our Bitcoins in offline wallets at the moment before the attack. We had to keep a large balance because the withdrawals are huge!

use mtgox code for any withdrawals above 500 btc /24h

The hacker almost gained access to our Mt. Gox API keys, before I revoke them!

He could get 30,000+ BTC easily if I was asleep, or busy.

[DiabloD3]

I have repeatedly told people that Bitcoinica is a scam and that Bitcoinica staff should be banned from the forums.

Maybe now people will actually listen.

[BadBear]

Dang, good thing you were watching. Any idea how they got in?

[zhoutong]

it was Rackspace fault ?

Not likely. I could be a email account compromise. Someone reset the password and gained access to the account. My email account history is normal, not sure about other owners. (Yes, the emails were sent to everyone!)

[zhoutong]

I have repeatedly told people that Bitcoinica is a scam and that Bitcoinica staff should be banned from the forums.

Maybe now people will actually listen.

Bitcoinica is a regulated entity, verifiable by government records. We are one of the most legitimate businesses in Bitcoin community, by any standard.

[Clipse]

Honestly, I know people want to be able to withdraw in "real-time" but why is it so terrible to have a pending period for large transfers? Surely this would avoid such massive withdrawals in near "real-time" without you being able to suspend it in case of hacks/theft?

[sturle]

Today, we have discovered a suspicious Bitcoin transaction that doesn't seem to be initiated by any one of the company owners. Some of them are not online at the moment so this is not conclusive.

Isn't this exactly what P2SH was invented to prevent?

Have a separate safety computer located somewhere else to automatically countersign all transactions which can be verified to be legitimate.  Normal transactions using bitcoind will not work without access to both wallets.

[zhoutong]

Honestly, I know people want to be able to withdraw in "real-time" but why is it so terrible to have a pending period for large transfers? Surely this would avoid such massive withdrawals in near "real-time" without you being able to suspend it in case of hacks/theft?

We really wanted to keep the blockchain and wallet in MySQL database. But we don't have a technical solution yet. Interacting with the official client is painful.

[N12]

Great news!

I am pleased to know that the Bitcoin community continues funding hackers and scammers in a big way. Bitcoin creates so much wealth for everyone of us. Last time was 45k BTC though, this time it’s only 18.5k, we’ve got to do better.

Continue using a site to get g zhoutonged and give your money to hackers to devalue your Bitcoins, please!

[realnowhereman]

At time of writing, the funds haven't been spent.

http://blockchain.info/address/182tGyiczhXSSCTciVujNRkkMw1zQxUVhp

[bulanula]

I have repeatedly told people that Bitcoinica is a scam and that Bitcoinica staff should be banned from the forums.

Maybe now people will actually listen.

[Yankee (BitInstant)]

I have repeatedly told people that Bitcoinica is a scam and that Bitcoinica staff should be banned from the forums.

Maybe now people will actually listen.

Bitcoinica is a regulated entity, verifiable by government records. We are one of the most legitimate businesses in Bitcoin community, by any standard.

I second that, and vouch for Zhou and the Bitcoinica team.