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DNS Hijack Leads To Bitcoin Heist

Posted by timothy on from the don't-make-trouble-nobody-gets-hoit dept.

First time accepted submitter FearTheFez writes "Social Engineering and poor DNS Security lead to a Bitcoin heist worth about $12000. Bitcoin broker Bitinstant was robbed after thieves managed to take over ownership of their domains. While Bitinstant claims that no customers lost any money, without 2 factor authentication all it took was a place of birth and a mothers maiden name to gain access. This looks like poor security from everyone involved."

1 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Conviction for stealing bitcoins by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 5, Informative

    bitcoins aren't data per se. A person's private key for their bitcoin wallet that is used to transfer ownership of bitcoins is data. It's just a long number. The proof of work used to establish a bitcoin is data. The transaction history of each bitcoin is data.

    A bitcoin is more than just the data underlying it. There are may thousands of copies of each bitcoin, but at any given time only one person has the authority to transfer a bitcoin to someone else.

    A bitcoin itself cannot be copied. To copy a bitcoin would mean copying it's ability to be spent (allowing it to be spent twice). This would ruin any currency. And much of the design of bitcoin is prevention of double spending.

    This is similar to how xeroxing your bank statement doesn't double the amount of money you have in the bank.