Topic: Bitcoin is a magnet for hackers and crooks - page 3. (Read 7771 times)

Feel like some of the replies in this thread couple programmers with hackers...

Not all programmers need to exploit systems to feel complete.

(...)

Just because your regular police officer won't know what a bitcoin is, doesn't mean it's not a criminal offence to steal them and that i can't be prosecuted. You may have a hard time explaining, sure.

There is also the WAR ON BITCOINS, you are not considering. It's not just greedy hackers, it's people who want to intentionally destroy bitcoin because they work for the bankers. ALL media, politicians, police, and governments are beholden to the central bankers, so bitcoin does not have many friends in the concrete jungle. Bitcoin is popular among people who value freedom and self responsibility and used by those without fear of computers or immediate persecution. Bitcoin is up again enormous odds and powers in the world. It will only succeed if people can endure the early hardships. Even then, we will continue to be fought against by the system. Bitcoins will NEVER be embraced by the real mainstream, paypal, ebay, bank of america, chase, and safeway or walmart. And maybe those are it's best features yet. One thing is for sure, bitcoin will probably never be for the masses until things change, and maybe bitcoin is supposed to be a large part of that change.

The problem boils down to this:

Victim: Officer, I want to report a theft.

Officer: What happened?

Victim: Someone stole my bitcoins!

Officer: Your what?

Victim: My BITCOINS!!!!

Officer: Did you have them in your bank account or in your credit card?

Victim: They are not stored in banks or credit cards.

Officer: Then we don't give a rat's ass. Sorry.

Victim: Why won't you do anything?

Officer: We work for Bankers, not you, Fuck Off common Pleb!

"Bitcoin is a magnet for hackers and crooks" .... AND BEER AND HOOKERS!!
 

OP, I'm glad you brought this to our attention.
Means we can get free or cheap penetration testing.


just post your URL in the forum or your sig,
and state there is a wallet with 0.1BTC in it, if you can get it, it's yours!
I wouldn't lie about it though, they will be sneaky bastards.

could even set up a site directory with bounties in BTC.

It's like an anti-sec dream, super cheap pen testing, thwarting the expensive job seeking vanity driven  hats.

creation and destruction.

May as well make the destroyers skwirm. xD

This^

Greed drove the price to $30.

Will

Scamming/hacking did not drive the price to 13$. The free market has decided 13-15$ is a fair price for a bitcoin. Wild speculation drove it to $30.

edit:

Yeah its easy atm for them, but there is still far more money in stealing credit card numbers and personal identities.

So is cash. Does it come as a surprise?

My main email address has been out there in the public eye for close to a dozen years now.  It has been posted on forums, websites, mailing lists, and even, God help me, USENET.

The throwaway address that leaked out of mtgox gets VASTLY more spam.

It's simply the nature of the beast... the pseudonymous and irreversible nature of Bitcoin simply means that there's a more attractive apple on the other side of the wall. Instead of hacking a site and using it to phish, or robbing bank accounts that can be reversed, or stealing credit card data which you can card physical goods at high risks...

... if you steal BTC, the victim stands almost no chance at getting it back and there's a pretty good chance you'll get away scot free.

Everyone who has half a working brain and was looking at starting up a Bitcoin-related business should realize this going in - the reward is much sweeter so people are going to try harder and therefore security has to be a higher priority.

That said I wouldn't panic at every scan, because that too is just the nature... of being on the internet. This isn't the 90s anymore, you'll go hoarse if you scream on IRC every time someone port-scans you.

Not to diminish that better security is needed, but I'd like to point out that increased hacker/scammer interest is further affirmation of the bitcoin's high relevance and worth in today's world. In light of this, investors and retail startups should feel confident about moving a lot of funds towards beefing up bitcoin security for merchants and customers alike.
[/quote]

Hacking / Scamming has held bitcoin down and stunted it's growth.

Scamming bitcoins could be cool and all... but not when your activities drive their prices from 25-30 each to 13-14 each.

Not to diminish that better security is needed, but I'd like to point out that increased hacker/scammer interest is further affirmation of the bitcoin's high relevance and worth in today's world. In light of this, investors and retail startups should feel confident about moving a lot of funds towards beefing up bitcoin security for merchants and customers alike.

I honestly want to know what happened to that service.   I can't even ping the domain anymore.   I suspect something bad happened... and instead of owning up to it he just vanished.

1. set up llc in nevis
2. build community trust for your new wallet service over a period of many months
3. disappear

Perhaps the best way to phrase it is that it's 1994 ... and you're opening an eCommerce store...    I don't know how many of you guys were around during the 1990's dot com boom times...  and the early 2000's crash times..   but honestly there were some things that people tend to forget.

At one point Ebay banned Paypal.  

literally a business decision was made to lock paypal out of Ebay,  ebay looked at paypal and realized that at the current growth rate of paypal ebay would not be able to fuction without it.  So they banned it hoping someone else would show up.   they citied security concerns and that "some company is stealling usernames and passwords'   literally that is what they used as an excuse.

 eventually within a few weeks ebay unbanned paypal then subsequently bought them realizing that they couldn't grow without it.

The point is that yes a security concern is a MAJOR issue,  but at the same time, there's a bunch of reading between the lines going on.   Because from time to time I get these crazy "suggestions"  and in reality I find out the guy works for "bitcoin startup A or bitcoin startup B"  those suggestions may on the face look good.. but in reality aren't.

Example,  I got a PM that stated I needed to make the minimum password length 20 characters for 'security reasons' ...  now I am all for allowing 20 characters.. but minimum length 20?

I find out the suggestion came from a guy that worked at one the exchanges that is now considering an ewallet ...   hence my suspicion that perhaps it wasn't so sincere.  

20 character minimums would lock grandma out of every using the system.

mine bitcoins, buy bitcoins or steal bitcoins.

we have a place for 2 of the options but this forum is lacking on the third most popular way of obtaining bitcoins.

I've got to agree with this. A higher proportion of programmers must mean a higher proportion of hackers, all other things being equal.

Also, have you considered the high volume of attacks might be due to an Internet-wide increase in the volume of automated attacks (I have no idea if this is the case; just speculating).