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There's Some Intense Web Scans Going on for Bitcoin and Ethereum Wallets (bleepingcomputer.com)

Posted by msmash on from the search-continues dept.

Catalin Cimpanu, writing for BleepingComputer: With both Bitcoin and Ethereum price hitting all-time highs in the past seven days, cyber-criminals have stepped up efforts to search and steal funds stored in these two cryptocurrencies. These mass Internet scanning campaigns have been recently picked up by various honeypots installed by security researchers across the Internet. The first of these, aimed at Bitcoin owners, was picked up by security researcher Didier Stevens over the weekend, just two days before Bitcoin was about to jump from $7,000 to over $8,000.

9 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. See "Tulip Mania" in 1637 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    "...a period in the Dutch Golden Age during which contract prices for some bulbs of the recently introduced and fashionable tulip reached extraordinarily high levels and then dramatically collapsed in February 1637. It is generally considered the first recorded speculative bubble (or economic bubble)" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    1. Re:See "Tulip Mania" in 1637 by AbRASiON · · Score: 2

      I'm not a big Bitcoin guy, by any means, but Bitcoin fundamentally has more use than a simple tulip bulb. Being a limited quantity, it certainly will hold it's value far more than fiat currency, assuming people adopt it for actual real transactions.

      My understanding however is, that it's quite limited for actual financial transactions on a larger scale.

      Mind you, I only know a little bit compared to enthusiasts and especially enthusiasts who also understand economics.

      In the very least, the Chinese love it for money laundering to buy foreign property unfortunately, so it isn't going anywhere for a while.

    2. Re: See "Tulip Mania" in 1637 by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

      Like any fiat currency, it's only worth what you think it's worth, and the US dollar is no exception. Though in this case, there is a LOT of speculation going on. I'm sure Bitcoin will work in the long run, but it's inevitably going to see yet another crash, and another rise, and another crash, ad infinitum, until people start using it to buy everyday goods, and the transaction costs go WAY down. I'm talking less than today's penny.

  2. Honeypots by PPH · · Score: 1

    It appears that the crims are poking around looking for files named 'wallet.dat' or some variation thereof. Their next step would be to decrypt the data file. So just leave a bunch of random content wallet.dat files lying around and tie up their processing power.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
    1. Re:Honeypots by Desler · · Score: 1

      Pepperidge Farm does.

  3. Re:Misuse of there's is reaching pandemic levels by markdavis · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I hear you and I cringed the instant I read the headline. "There's" means "There is" and that cannot be used with a plural object. Is it so difficult to say "There are"? These are not typos; such errors represent a lack of understanding and writing basic English.

  4. Re:Well Im convinced! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It's a new technology, so be wise and pick the newest company.

  5. Blame the insecure software wallets by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Part of the problem is that at least one of the most popular software wallets - namely Jaxx - refuses to encrypt the private-key that is stored on the user's computer with any user-defined password, thus of course there are scripts out there that can instantly decrypt Jaxx wallets from any computer a hacker gets sufficient access to. This issue has been raised in the past, but the people behind Jaxx disingenuously insist their wallet is not intended for storing any amount of value, a dubious claim which in any case has clearly not gotten through to their users, while on the whole users seem rather unconcerned/unaware, which of course they should be.

    This kind of thing is obviously inevitable as long as software wallets don't bother to at least encrypt what is stored on the users' computers with a user-defined password. When the software wallets fail to provide such security, users of cryptocurrencies are really left with a lot of very bad choices for where to put their 'digital gold' - storing on exchanges with a very chequered history (many cases of exchanges losing users' coins or collapsing or making it very difficult to withdraw them) or insecure software wallets, ...) - and a very few (mostly more difficult) good ones that they're on the whole more unlikely to stumble across (hardware wallets if everything is done properly and they don't lose the piece of hardware themselves, possibly some more secure software wallets).

  6. Re:Well Im convinced! by Desler · · Score: 1

    Yeah, you don’t want to get stuck with a company using “legacy” code. How gauche...