[Payout Updates] Bitcoinica site is taken offline for security investigation

[guruvan]

Quick update:

1) Yep according to phantomcircuit - the emails are legit.

2) If I was doing this, I'd probably make all the accounts react the same way on the password verification

3) I was pretty paranoid about that email harvesting IP & passwords - I confirmed the authenticity of the email before I had proceeded any further

4) I have not received any further contact via email.

5) I have actually seen one person say that he'd received "50%" payment - on further checking it appeared that he had a position worth X and account balance worth X - he received 1 * X (I didn't get to press for more clarity or details  - sounded like they paid the /account balance/ in full, and 0 on the position so far, but please do not quote that)

6) At 5.95 this is seriously starting to hurt.

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[mb300sd]

Can anyone confirm what happens when an incorrect password is entered? I do not know which of 3 possible passwords I was using at bitcoinica and the field disappeared after the first one.

[Sysrq]

I entered my password, hit authenticate, but nothing happened. Is that normal?

Same happened to me, and no message like the last couple of posts.

Same thing.  The password field just disappeared.

It should be normal. I entered my password and it disappeared, but in the backend it shows "Password verified" as true.

[naima53]

(surely, the rising exchange rate is a serious concern for them as the deal with authentic claims)

I wonder if the rate is artificially rising to take advantage of this situation. I'm not savvy enough to figure out how that could be done, let alone knowing if there's a real advantage for doing such, but do have a feeling that something doesn't smell right. Really? A near 18% gain over the past 30 days with this episode looming? One would expect the price to fall or, at the very least, remain stable as it has relatively done prior to this Bitcoinica episode.

I may be wrong, but it's something sure to think about.

I apologize for the slight aside, and I'm not the right person to start such a thread on this subject if one is warranted.

I am glad to see progress on this issue. Good job and good luck, guys.

~Bruno~

Good point .. Operation Rescue Bitcoin completed (?) So where is my money?

Quotes in chronological order.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74639.msg888454#msg888454
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74639.msg894104;topicseen#msg894104
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74639.msg894659;topicseen#msg894659
http://blockchain.info/charts/output-volume?timespan=1year&showDataPoints=false&daysAverageString=7&show_header=true&scale=0&address=
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=81045.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74639.msg899736#msg899736


Edit And who is this R-?

[naima53]

Can anyone confirm what happens when an incorrect password is entered? I do not know which of 3 possible passwords I was using at bitcoinica and the field disappeared after the first one.

If the password is correct - absolutely nothing happens. Just disappears the password field. If you are not correct - then see above (about "hand-withdrawal" someone wrote)

[Otoh]

Can anyone confirm what happens when an incorrect password is entered? I do not know which of 3 possible passwords I was using at bitcoinica and the field disappeared after the first one.

I think that means you entered the correct password first time off, as when I was in the same situation I first tried one that didn't work as old or something then maybe another & the field just stayed there until I entered the correct one from those saved at lastpass.com - but I can't guarantee it's the same in your case but expect that it could well be.

edit: seeing above post, maybe I chose the correct one first off from those on offer to me at lastpass, don't remember for sure.

[jojo69]

christ

I always had to try about 3 times to get all my substitutions and whatnot right

fortunately it was only 1/10 of my position...down the drain

[almackska]

I have my pass written on a paper in my wallet so i know its correct. No reply to my last email i sent to them. WTF is going on? As patient as I normally am, I am getting pissed!

[kokjo]

I have my pass written on a paper in my wallet so i know its correct. No reply to my last email i sent to them. WTF is going on? As patient as I normally am, I am getting pissed!

chill, we all are. they are bad at handling PR.

[ninjarobot]

I have my pass written on a paper in my wallet so i know its correct. No reply to my last email i sent to them. WTF is going on? As patient as I normally am, I am getting pissed!

Genjix (One of the Bitcoinica guys working on the claims process) mentioned they only have a random sample of users password hashes:

Not all the password hashes exist. Only a few of them. That's why it says no password hash found. The record is not an old record but simply a recent sample of a random bunch of users. It does not matter how old your account is.

[almackska]

The question is.... What happens to the people that didnt have a hash?

[tbcoin]

The question is.... What happens to the people that didnt have a hash?

I suppose we request identification documents and more data to support the ownership of the account ..

[tbcoin]

I have faith and know that is a matter of time but this is stressful

[bremer-btc-user]

The question is.... What happens to the people that didnt have a hash?

I suppose we request identification documents and more data to support the ownership of the account ..

I had 64 btc in bitcoinica, made just one single long position and cleared it again, (got me a loss of 0.04 btc,   )
So then I decided to let the btd in Storage to earn some interest, so I got 64.01 btc again...

All this without having to give any documents about me to bitcoinica.
then bitcoinica went offline...

and now all customers who are trying just to get back what they had in there are painfully treated with:
- no conversation
- some very unspecified legal issues
- the general suspect of making fraudulent claims
- maybe the need of giving ID authentications and further documents
- vague announcements about the verification-processes of claims
etc...

In return we didn't get informations about who at the moment leads the process to solve the situation,
who exactly is CEO or owner of bitcoinica,
who makes the decisions about the veryfication-of-claims-process,
when the payout process will start,
how open positions will be handled,

Wasn't it the published statement that bitcoinica after the sale will be or is the most serious and most legitimated bitcoin business at all?
I really hope other businesses care more about cloud-security, backups, account an password security for thier customer accounts and general communications... or will do in future...
The bitcoin-economy is really in it's childhood-days I suppose, but I hope it will learn fast!

Bitcoinica was pitily an example for "HOW (not) TO DO"

I'm curious when the desaster will be solved at all, but I also think that most of the related peaple do their very best, even if they have to do it with piles of paper with long columns of "hard to read" transactions...

maybe the classical "paper based" business model of the past had some advantages over the modern and "just in time" cloud?

(no, I dont't want to turn back the clock to Typewriters-Times...)

[proudhon]

maybe the classical "paper based" business model of the past had some advantages over the modern and "just in time" cloud?

Or maybe we should all be more careful with our bitcoins and not be so hasty to centralize them, especially in risky startups.

[Hexadecibel]

Fck, the hacker attempted to login to my email that i used for bitcoinica . Google caught it in time and locked my account.

The IP is from Guam.

Your mail doesn't have 2 factor authentication via google authenticator?

[proudhon]

Fck, the hacker attempted to login to my email that i used for bitcoinica . Google caught it in time and locked my account.

The IP is from Guam.

Your mail doesn't have 2 factor authentication via google authenticator?

I don't think most people use that, unfortunately.

[rdponticelli]

maybe the classical "paper based" business model of the past had some advantages over the modern and "just in time" cloud?

Or maybe we should all be more careful with our bitcoins and not be so hasty to centralize them, especially in risky startups.

If I had to do Bitcoinica again, I would write a script to print out the balance sheet everyday.

You should do much more than that. Multiple and frequent offline backups, to begging with...

[rjk]

Fck, the hacker attempted to login to my email that i used for bitcoinica . Google caught it in time and locked my account.

The IP is from Guam.

Your mail doesn't have 2 factor authentication via google authenticator?

I don't think most people use that, unfortunately.

I would like to use it, but is there any way to get around the phone number requirement? I don't need Google to have that.

[bremer-btc-user]

maybe the classical "paper based" business model of the past had some advantages over the modern and "just in time" cloud?

Or maybe we should all be more careful with our bitcoins and not be so hasty to centralize them, especially in risky startups.

If I had to do Bitcoinica again, I would write a script to print out the balance sheet everyday.

this would have been a very good idea six weeks ago...