Is it illegal for someone to hack my BTC wallet? - page 11.

BitcoinSupremo

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Quote from: groll on June 18, 2016, 01:00:22 AM

Yes it is illegal, stealing and hacking are punishable by law. But how could someone hack your BTC wallet? We have unique addresses and it cannot be stolen. You can file case but up to what extent? How you will identify the hacker? Who will you sue? Just be sure to change your password every now and then.

Your BTC wallet can be hacked quite easily actually , especially if you have an online wallet, a phishing email or a keylogger trojan records all of your passwords and boom your bitcoins will be gone. A bit more difficult when you use desktop wallets , and regarding to trace it , in the bitcoin era is very difficult to trace the hacker if not impossible, it has been impossible in most of the cases. You can not identify him as he maybe using a lot of addresses and also decides to mix the coins in a mixer service making it even more difficult to track.

groll

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Yes it is illegal, stealing and hacking are punishable by law. But how could someone hack your BTC wallet? We have unique addresses and it cannot be stolen. You can file case but up to what extent? How you will identify the hacker? Who will you sue? Just be sure to change your password every now and then.

serjent05

legendary

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Hire Bitcointalk Camp. Manager @ r7promotions.com

It is illegal especially in my country. Cyber Crimes is one degree higher than the regular crime, for example, slander in normal cases will have a penalty of around 6 months imprisonment and some fine but if slander happens in the internet e.g. facebook or other social media, it is called cyber crime and is one degree higher where 6 months will be 6 years . Stating the fact that stealing your digital assets thru the use of hacking method, penalty is one degree higher than stealing your personal computer Grin

RankoYS

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It should be considered as theft but I think the legal procedure depends a lot on where you live.

2c0de

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Stealing 0.0000001 Bitcoin is perfectly legal, because it's so small value. Nobody ever got arrested for stealing 1 cent for example.

When you do it 10000000000 times, it should be legal too.

BitcoinSupremo

copper member

Activity: 1442

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Yes it is illegal and to the guys who have happened such things here, like users of blockchain.info and a single person who was tricked to download a word file with trojan inside in a mac machine lost quite a lot of money. You cannot find the hacker in 100% of the cases so if you are so concerned with the security of your bitcoins you should definitely buy a hardware wallet.

_Miracle

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Do due diligence

Yes it would be theft. How it got handled is a whole other story, which likely would have a wide variance in process and punishment depending on local.

Pbitcoin

member

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Very good question Shocked

in my opinion it will be illegal as no one can have unauthorized access to others system and in case of qr code that will be your fault !

baitanjzcop4282

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The coin of sale founder holds another point of view that bitcoin doesn’t need to be regulated.

baitanjzcop4282

member

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It is illegal , of course~~ do they have a clear legal provisions to specification.

Chris!

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Quote from: ?? on ??

Quote from: cjmoles on May 29, 2016, 12:14:39 PM

So,

1) If they hacked into my machine and stole the private key; (illegal)
2) If they sniped the pk while snooping on a public access connection; (illegal)
3) If they brute forced the private key into existence; (not illegal)
4) If they snapped a shot of my private key qr code over my shoulder at an ATM. (not illegal)

What if I claimed an address on the block chain with a signature and 3 or 4 happened? Would I have a case then?

If 3) happens then all Bitcoins become worthless and the question would become: If I take something which is worth nothing is it illegal?

Well I guess you could argue that even though all Bitcoins are now worthless they still might have sentimental value.

Haha well I doubt we'll get there anytime soon s don't you worry Wink

you just keep on HODLing.

It is illegal to steal digital goods. It's a fact. But to others' points, the authorities will most likely do nothing or start a haphazard investigation and in the end getting your $500 back from a hacker off the coast of Taiwan won't be a priority. Giving those punk kids their $150 speeding tickets will meet the quota nicely

NoBit

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Quote from: cjmoles on May 29, 2016, 12:14:39 PM

Quote from: bitdumper on May 29, 2016, 11:55:46 AM

If you found their private key by mathematical computation or guessing, I think it will not be considered illegal. But if you got that by using malware or trojan that may be illegal.
If you hacked Nobody can expect you can claim that wallet is yours.

So,

1) If they hacked into my machine and stole the private key; (illegal)
2) If they sniped the pk while snooping on a public access connection; (illegal)
3) If they brute forced the private key into existence; (not illegal)
4) If they snapped a shot of my private key qr code over my shoulder at an ATM. (not illegal)

What if I claimed an address on the block chain with a signature and 3 or 4 happened? Would I have a case then?

3) Is it illegal to write a check with your bank account and signature on it?
4) Is it illegal to look in the paper trash for cc information? Snap a shot and use it?

iv4n

legendary

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Interesting topic we have here, and even more interesting comments.
What can law do in this case? Even if there is law against digital theft, how they can prove anything.

For example in my country all thefts under 40 euros is not criminal activity, its just minor offense. So how much law will react on this matter depends from amount of money in wallet.

I think most of all is to prove anything here, someone can manipulate with this things a lot. I think solution is to keep coins safe as possible, and then there will no be problems of this kind.

botany

legendary

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It is against the law.
But the questions to be answered are - Can it be proven? What can law enforcers do in this case?

bob123

legendary

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Of course this is illegal.
Its theft of digital goods.

Gaugh

full member

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Quote from: GoldCoders.com on May 29, 2016, 12:57:06 PM

As far as I know, hacking for stealing and is illegal.

That is true, but hacking into a bitcoin wallet is a bit difficult to prove because the whole bitcoin concept is built on being anonymous. So how do you prove that the private key was yours to start with? Your name is not written on it...

philipma1957

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'The right to privacy matters'

Quote from: Bulldog69 on June 05, 2016, 11:28:23 PM

Likely illegal. But where do you start to find them> IP addresses are easy to fake. wallet addresses are anonymous, difficult to track and can be changed every transaction.
I sure would like to know if there is a good way. I was just hacked for about $20k and feel there is no recourse.

You are correct this is no recourse as you will never be able to find the hacker.

Best I can tell you is 3 accounts on 3 machines.

Or

Use a mac mini from apple clone the hard drive a few times.

and don't run the drive with the account unless you want to take coins out.

Lastly have a few smaller accounts on wallets like blockchain.info and coinbase.

Bulldog69

newbie

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Likely illegal. But where do you start to find them> IP addresses are easy to fake. wallet addresses are anonymous, difficult to track and can be changed every transaction.
I sure would like to know if there is a good way. I was just hacked for about $20k and feel there is no recourse.

pawel7777

legendary

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Quote from: cjmoles on May 29, 2016, 12:14:39 PM

...

So,

1) If they hacked into my machine and stole the private key; (illegal)
2) If they sniped the pk while snooping on a public access connection; (illegal)
3) If they brute forced the private key into existence; (not illegal)
4) If they snapped a shot of my private key qr code over my shoulder at an ATM. (not illegal)

What if I claimed an address on the block chain with a signature and 3 or 4 happened? Would I have a case then?

Pretty much correct. I have my doubts whether 4 couldn't be classed as illegal though. Most of definitions of 'hacking' in criminal law describe 'anauthorised access' and that could fall under that definition (similar to stealing your credit card details).

But in any case, if you know the person who got your bitcoins, you could try to get it back by starting civil lawsuit against that person.

BellaBitBit

hero member

Activity: 756

Merit: 500

I don't see how it is not illegal because you did not give them permission to have it - it is theft. Governments are working on ways to regulate bitcoin as we speak so hopefully we can get more protection and an avenue for recourse.

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