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Bitcoin Trading Platform Announces Huge Downtime Following Cyber-Attack (softpedia.com)

Posted by timothy on from the bank-holiday dept.

An anonymous reader writes: BitQuick, a US-based Bitcoin trader has announced that it will shut down its platform for up to 2 to 4 weeks following a cyber-attack this week. The platform took this step because it has not yet identified how the hackers infiltrated their systems. It is unusual for companies to take down their systems for weeks, but after the recent Cryptsy and LoanBase hacks, the company is not willing to lose millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin. BitQuick announced clients of the incident, and 97% already withdrew their funds from the platform.

9 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds like they are handling it well by Nkwe · · Score: 5, Insightful
    From the article

    The company is not yet sure what information the attacker stole, but it's certain that, due to its security system, no Bitcoins were stolen and that the attacker didn't get access to personal user details (driver's licenses, IDs, passports data, etc.) or their email addresses. One day after the attack, the company says it emailed withdrawal instructions to all sellers, that all transactions have been processed, and that only 3% of the money it stored prior to the attack has remained unclaimed.

    So they found a breach, shut down everything immediately, made arrangements to refund everyone's "money", actually refunded everyone's money, and are waiting to ensure they can start back up safely.

    Sounds pretty professional to me.

    1. Re:Sounds like they are handling it well by KGIII · · Score: 2

      It does sound reasonable and professional. Is it? I'd like to think so.

      At first blush, and compounded with other happenings of late, people are thinking/opining that the cracks in the façade are starting to appear. That's one way to look at it. However, it seems the cracks are being repaired as they appear and are less drastic than many of the naysayers speculated they would be. That is, of course, the least popular way to look at it - especially in these parts where anger, mockery, and indignant outrage are the typical responses to everything. To be fair, that's kind of what we do and have always done.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  2. Re:No support from developer.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    "BitCoins were never convertible to dollars"

    You should maybe do some more research on the subject.... What do you think bitcoin exchanges are for? Not only can you *easily* convert bitcoin to dollars.. you can quickly and easily convert it to many currencies all over the world.

  3. Bank Insurance for Bitcoin? by supremebob · · Score: 2

    After all of these high profile failures of various Bitcoin trading platforms, I'm thinking that Bitcoin really needs some sort of equivalent of FDIC or NCUA bank account insurance for deposits. The mainstream is really going to have trouble accepting Bitcoin as a currency when their account balances can magically disappear overnight with no legal recourse.

    1. Re:Bank Insurance for Bitcoin? by The+New+Guy+2.0 · · Score: 2

      FDIC/NCUA requires that the banks know who they have deposits from and gave loans to, and BitCoin is designed to be anonymous. Lost BitCoins are like lost cash, and exchanges not lasting long prove how illiquid this "currency" is.

    2. Re:Bank Insurance for Bitcoin? by wbr1 · · Score: 2

      FDIC/NCUA requires that the banks know who they have deposits from and gave loans to, and BitCoin is designed to be anonymous. Lost BitCoins are like lost cash, and exchanges not lasting long prove how illiquid this "currency" is.

      Bitcoin is NOT designed to be anonymous. It is psuedonymous. Why do people stick to this?
      I am not a miner nor a speculator. I am interested in cryptocurrencies because I think they -could- fundamentally change how economies work.
      Bitcoin stores details of every transaction forever. That is what the blockchain does! This puts all transactions out in the open for analysis. Sure you can mix between a billion wallets, but how long before someone detangles the block chain and sees that the guy who bout 2 kilos of coke also used the same wallet to buy his daughter a barbie powerwheels?
      If we wanted to have insured bitcoins we could, you would give up your pseudoanonumty though to do so.

      --
      Silence is a state of mime.
    3. Re:Bank Insurance for Bitcoin? by witherstaff · · Score: 2

      New York state set some rules for Bitcoin Exchanges that are being used by all the major bitcoin companies. Bitcoin exchanges, which allow people to store bitcoin on their servers, and/or can convert to USD, need all the same information on users that a bank does. They also have reporting to do. A few of the big ones have their own insurance.

      Of course a user doesn't need to use an exchange. A user can easily use one of the many wallets that don't have a central company keeping everything for you. You can use bitcoin without any other company involved, no way for a high profile hacking, etc.

      A few sloppy companies messed up

  4. Re:LOL, fer sure by Holi · · Score: 2

    We shut down trading on the stock market or on individual stocks when necessary for various reasons, how is this any different?

    --
    Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
  5. Re:No support from developer.... by witherstaff · · Score: 2

    Totally wrong. The original blocks mined by satoshi are still sitting there untouched. It'd be major news if they were moved. This exchange is not one of the big ones. It'd be like some online webstore being hacked and claiming ecommerce is done with. There are arbitration services for bitcoin if both parties want to pay the fee. If you use some of the large pre-made bitcoin shopping cart systems tied to exchanges they also have ways to handle bad business practices. Bitcoin companies have done a lot to make it a viable payment system. Also when banks do fail and/or freeze accounts, like in Cyprus, or Greece, bitcoin works fine.