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Tracking a Bitcoin Thief

Posted by samzenpus on from the naming-names dept.

An anonymous reader writes A small group of researchers were able to publish an investigative report on the hacking of a popular Bitcoin exchange earlier this year by the name of CryptoRush.in. Close to a million dollars stolen in crypto currency lead the group to discover evidence, track down the attacker and put together a timeline of what exactly happened. A captivating read for a community desensitized by thefts, hackings and lack of reporting. With pictures, and logs to prove it all.

11 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Criminals are dumb by radarskiy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Steal a million dollars... in a perfectly traceable currency where every transaction is public.

    1. Re:Criminals are dumb by arbiter1 · · Score: 2

      Um consider there are a lot of countries that don't even see bit coin as a real currency. Claiming million $ loss for digital item is like haveing item stole in warcraft. Proven real harm is hard when its something purely digital.

    2. Re:Criminals are dumb by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The RIAA and MPAA don't seem to have any problems.

  2. Re:Pictures and Logs Prove What Exactly? by PRMan · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Blockchain can't be faked. Everyone has a copy.

    --
    Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
  3. Amateur hour by kharchenko · · Score: 5, Funny

    Whipping up a few lame PHP scripts, leaving all the logs, using real name, your own static IP and a personal Dropbox account?! Is that what cuts for a hacker these days? With a million dollar payoff? I am starting to think I am not optimizing my earnings potential :)

    1. Re:Amateur hour by Lord_Jeremy · · Score: 4, Informative

      Note that basically the only hacking technique he used was running a couple websites with malicious code that stole user's email and passwords. Then trying those credentials at lots of other sites looking for stuff to take. In particular, he discovered that the founder/administrator of CryptoRush used the same password for everything and he was able to download server backups that contained the necessary information (private keys?) to access the exchange wallets. So basically everyone involved was participating in amateur hour.

  4. Re:Yes, but what does Bennett Haselton have to say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Calm your butthurt Bennett. You've never written a "proper" article ever.

  5. Re:Queue misguided bitcoin comments in....3....2.. by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 2

    I wonder what would happen here is someone used Bitcoin to buy an Apple?

  6. Sekrit anti-government crypto currency by __aaltlg1547 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    turns out to be much more traceable than the old fashioned kind, because you need the traceability to verify the transaction and establish who "has" the bitcoins.

    Look out, Mark Karpeles.

  7. lead != led by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Sorry if I misunderstood and the crypto currency is actually made out of lead....

  8. Fail ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 2

    I don't have a copy.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.