[German]Has a hacker managed to crack a so-called Bitcoin wallet that stores credit balances of a crypto-money account? It is certain that a Bitcoin wallet that has been passed around in hacker circles since 2015 has been emptied. The account was relieved of the equivalent of US$1 billion.
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It's unbelievable and life still writes the best stories – at least that's what went through my mind when I came across the story. It is well known that the block chain stories and crypto money have some design flaws when it comes to securing assets or tracking criminal transactions. And the fact that Bitcoin or other wallets were hacked and the credit balances deducted is not entirely new either. But the current case, if it really was a haul, as the following Tweet suggests, is a tough one.
Bitcoin Wallet suddenly empty
The colleagues from Bleeping Computer have prepared it in a little more detail. In a nutshell: there was a password-protected BitCoin wallet with almost $1 billion in Bitcoins as crypto-money. And then this account was suddenly empty. Now observer speculates whether it was the owner himself who accessed it, or whether unauthorized persons pulled the bitcoins. One thing is certain: On November 3, 2020 the wallet or the account still had a stock of 69369.16628020 BitCoins. According to the current exchange rate, this corresponds to approximately 957 million dollars. Overnight the balance fell to a meager 1.38 dollars equivalent, someone had the Bitcoins transferred.
The Bitcoin Wallet circulated since 2015 between hackers
The Bitcoin Wallet circulated since 2015 in hacker circles
Since the whole subject of block chain transactions is completely anonymous, it is not possible to say who owns the Bitcoin wallet and who is the beneficiary of these transactions. The incident was first reported by Alon Gal, co-founder and CTO of Hudson Rock (see tweet above). This wallet has probably been passed among hackers since 2015 – as Bleeping Computer writes. But without a password there is little you can do with it (except checking your account balance). Alon Gal had already pointed to this Bitcoin wallet in this Tweet on September 8, 2020 (contained crypto money worth about 700 million US dollars at that time, but the price of Bitcoins has risen sharply recently). There he pointed out that hackers had been biting their teeth for 2 years to crack this wallet.
Not the first case
A single transaction worth $1 billion in Bitcoins from an otherwise dormant account looks suspicious and causes all the alarm bells to ring. Although the owner of the Bitcoin Wallet could have emptied this. Bleeping Computer points out that already in June 2020, another BitCoin wallet with a valuation of one billion dollars was inexplicably emptied. So it's not really sure, the whole thing. And tracking transactions in crypto currencies is difficult, but not impossible. This, in turn, allows the financial and regulatory authorities to follow up any cases of illegal activity such as money laundering.
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Addendum: There are speculations, that the wallet belongs to Silk Road (was a darknet market that let users buy and sell illicit goods). Ross Ulbricht, the site's founder, is now in prison.
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