In a major blow, the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday said it has recovered 63.7 bitcoins (currently valued at $2.3 million) paid by Colonial Pipeline to the DarkSide ransomware extortionists on May 8, pursuant to a seizure warrant that was authorized by the Northern District of California. The ransomware attack also hobbled the pipeline company's fuel supply, prompting the government to issue an emergency declaration, even as the company shelled out a ransom amount of approximately 75 bitcoins ($4.4 million as of May 8) to regain access to its systems.
More on The Hacker News• 2021-06-08
Cryptocurrency trading platform Hotbit has shut down all services for at least a week after a cyberattack that down several of its services on Thursday evening. Hotbit assured its roughly 2 million registered users from over 210 countries (500,000 of them using the platform's Android app) that their cryptocurrency assets were "safe and secure." "Hotbit just suffered a serious cyber attack starting around 08:00 PM UTC, April 29,2021, which led to the paralyzation of a number of some basic services," the exchange said. "Meanwhile, the attackers also tried to hack into Hotbit’s wallets (However, the attempt was identified and stopped by our risk control system)." While the threat actors could not gain access to any cryptocurrency assets, they did delete Hotbit's database.
More on Bleeping Computer• 2021-05-01
The CEO of a Bitcoin ATM company laundered money through LocalBitcoins.com and elsewhere, according to a recently unsealed indictment. The United States Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against Brannen Mehaffey, the CEO of BASH Bitcoin ATMs. The indictment accuses Mehaffey of seven counts of money laundering as well as one count of structuring financial transactions. Included in the indictment is information about the victim of a fraud scheme directly linked to Mehaffey. Between December 2018 and February 2019, one victim lost $125,000. The funds traced to an account controlled by one of Mehaffey’s companies. One year later, another victim transferred $7,370 to an controlled by Mehaffey. It is unclear how these transactions related to the money laundering and structuring charges in the indictment.
More on Darknetlive• 2021-04-30
Cryptocurrency rewards platform Celsius Network has disclosed a security breach exposing customer information that led to a phishing attack. Today, Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky stated that Celsius' third-party marketing server was compromised, and threat actors gained access to a partial Celsius customer list. "An unauthorized party managed to gain access to a back-up third-party email distribution system which had connections to a partial customer email list. Once inside the system, this unauthorized party sent a fraudulent email announcement, of which we know some of the recipients to be Celsius customers."
More on Bleeping Computer• 2021-04-16
The ability to write programs with money is as big a breakthrough as the ability to write programs with documents. It gives Wall Street's capabilities to anyone, without expensive lawyers or financiers. This quote on the transformational potential of smart contracts belongs to Balaji S. Srinivasan, a well-known advocate of the transformational potential of crypto at large. Depending on where you stand on crypto, you may find it succinct or hyperbolic. Chainlink and its co-founder Sergey Nazarov are clearly in the camp of crypto advocates. Chainlink provides an oracle service, enabling smart contracts to interoperate with the world. Today, Chainlink released a whitepaper outlining what they dub Chainlink 2.0.
More on ZDNet• 2021-04-15
When the encrypted communications app Signal launched nearly seven years ago, it brought the promise of the strongest available encryption to a dead-simple interface for calling and texting. Now, Signal is incorporating what it describes as a way to bring that same ease of use and security to a third, fundamentally distinct feature: payments. Signal today plans to announce that it's rolling out the ability for some of its users to send money to one another within its fast-growing encrypted communications network. To do so, it has integrated support for the cryptocurrency MobileCoin, a form of digital cash designed to work efficiently on mobile devices while protecting users' privacy and even their anonymity.
More on WIRED• 2021-04-06
If you've landed on this page because you saw a strange message on a completely different website then followed a link to here, drop a note to the site owner and let them know what happened. If, on the other hand, you're on this page because you're interested in reading about the illicit use of cryptomining on compromised websites and how through fortuitous circumstances, I now own coinhive.com and am doing something useful with it, read on.
More on Troy Hunt Blog• 2021-04-02
If you've landed on this page because you saw a strange message on a completely different website then followed a link to here, drop a note to the site owner and let them know what happened. If, on the other hand, you're on this page because you're interested in reading about the illicit use of cryptomining on compromised websites and how through fortuitous circumstances, I now own coinhive.com and am doing something useful with it, read on.
More on Troy Hunt Blog• 2021-04-02
Cryptocurrency giant Coinbase announced on Thursday that its highly anticipated direct listing will happen on April 14. The company also disclosed it will share its Q1 financial results eight days beforehand, on April 6. The plan is unusual, and significant because the results will arrive just days before the company offers its shares to the public, and will thus add new guidance for investors looking to determine how much Coinbase shares should be worth.
More on Decrypt• 2021-04-02
Tal Prihar, the administrator of the darkweb news site DeepDotWeb, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. He admitted laundering $8.4 million in cryptocurrency earned through the use of referral links on DeepDotWeb.com. Prihar created and ran DeepDotWeb, a darkweb news and link portal, from 2013 until his arrest in May 2019. DeepDotWeb was one of the first sites to cover news with an explicit focus on the darkweb. The site quickly became the sole authoritative source of marketplace and forum links for many years. Through the use of marketplace referral links, Prihar and the alleged designer of DeepDotWeb, Michael Phan, together earned more than $15 million in Bitcoin. The co-conspirators laundered their earnings through shell companies across the world, including companies inconspicuously referenced on DeepDotWeb.com. The indictment lists some of the companies used in the conspiracy:
More on Darknetlive• 2021-03-31
Visa announced Monday that it now settles payments in the USDC stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain. The development means Visa has become the first major payments network to use stablecoin as a settlement currency. Until now, Visa settled payments in fiat currencies only. For its new USDC settlement capability, Visa is initially working with Crypto.com as part of a pilot program, letting the crypto firm manage its card business now entirely in digital assets. Previously, Visa's standard settlement process required Crypto.com to settle in a fiat currency, which added cost and complexity for the firm. Now Crypto.com won't have to go through conversations and settle with Visa directly in USDC.
More on The Block• 2021-03-29
Cryptocurrency exchange FTX has secured the naming rights to the home arena of NBA team Miami Heat for a reported $135 million. The Miami Herald reported Tuesday that the 19,000-capacity American Airlines Arena will become the FTX Arena. This is the first occurrence of a crypto business winning the naming rights to a major U.S. professional sports venue. FTX came to an agreement in principle with Miami-Dade County for a 19-year partnership, meaning the arena will bear the exchange's name until 2040.
More on CoinDesk• 2021-03-25