Tech Savvy Student Steals $7.5 Million in Cryptocurrency

Kakmakr

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Paper wallets do not need mobile phone access and you can use my SIM card as much as you want, because you will never get to my main hoard. Wink

The people who rely 100% on hot wallets to store their coins are simply stupid or uninformed about the dangers of doing that.

Yes, it might not be practical to sweep coins every time you want to use it, but it is much safer than having all your coins on hot wallets. Roll Eyes

I also store those paper wallets in 4 different locations for better security. Roll Eyes

xtraelv

legendary

Activity: 1288

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฿ear ride on the rainbow slide

Quote from: Alpha0One1 on May 10, 2019, 12:11:50 AM

Not good enough if you are caught. Best steals are those that become legendary like D.B. Cooper -> never identified or captured. Cool

D B Cooper may not have survived the parachute jump either.

Evgenklm

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Activity: 896

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I think he knew what he was doing, because the theft is huge and there are millions of $.Accordingly, the term given is not small, of course sorry for the guy, still young, but all equal before the law.

Alpha0One1

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Not good enough if you are caught. Best steals are those that become legendary like D.B. Cooper -> never identified or captured. Cool

Sithara007

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I think that he got away with a relatively light sentence. He destroyed the lives of so many people, and if I was the judge then I should have given a life without parole. Now he'll be out of prison after max 7-8 years and once he is free he is going to convert all his hidden coin stash to USD and then live comfortably like a king somewhere in Mexico (it looks like he is of Mexican descent, but not being a xenophobe here). As far as I know, the authorities were unable to recover all of his stolen coins.

xtraelv

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฿ear ride on the rainbow slide

Quote from: stompix on May 08, 2019, 12:30:57 PM

Quote from: Genemind on April 30, 2019, 12:46:11 PM

Ortiz was a smart hacker

Quote from: CryptoBry on May 01, 2019, 08:38:44 PM

Such a great talent and genius can be put to use for the benefit of the cryptocurrency industry.

Quote from: pundit on May 02, 2019, 09:53:03 AM

I appreciate Joel Ortiz tech skills,

You guys didn't read more than 3 lines of that article, did you?

Quote

Joel Ortiz, a skilled SIM Swapper

Do you know what a SIM Swapper is? A guy that goes to a phone company office and tries with a convincing story to have the victim's sim card replaced and handed to him. Then he uses that sim card to have all the passwords of the victim's social media accounts or exchange reset and takes control over them.

There is no "hacking", no "tech-savvy" , he is at the same level as a guy trying to sell snake oil to some morons.

I agree - SIM jacking is not "tech savvy". It is a confidence trickster.

It is on par to stealing someones car by fooling the valet parking attendant into giving you the keys.

It is also foolish to tie your accounts to a phone number. Using text or email as your 2FA is like locking your house and leaving a note on the door reminding where the backup key is hidden.

Txt is not secure - it can be intercepted. With companies greedily trying to steal customers from other providers and service providers hiring people that are not aware of how much is at stake when they give a phone number to the wrong person - phone numbers are not secure.

Porting a number to another phone is relatively easy if you have certain information.

There are whole websites dedicated to phone jacking and stealing social media accounts for profit.

Thirdspace

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Quote from: MakeMoneyBtc on May 08, 2019, 07:35:28 PM

Well,that's what happens when people are not careful and do not care about their phone's security thinking no one would break into their wallets. I don't know if it is people's fault or phone companies fault for not taking care of the security of their clients sin cards because there was obviously a trick this hacker found out about and was able to break into the security of those phone companies to access the sim cards.

it's not about "their phone's security" nor "people's fault" nor "security of their clients sim cards"
this is the negligence of the phone company worker in handing replacement sim card to an unrightful owner
you completely misunderstood the story here or did not read the article
stompix explanation should clear up your misconception on this "hacking" story

Quote from: stompix on May 08, 2019, 12:30:57 PM

Do you know what a SIM Swapper is? A guy that goes to a phone company office and tries with a convincing story to have the victim's sim card replaced and handed to him. Then he uses that sim card to have all the passwords of the victim's social media accounts or exchange reset and takes control over them.

MakeMoneyBtc

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Well,that's what happens when people are not careful and do not care about their phone's security thinking no one would break into their wallets. I don't know if it is people's fault or phone companies fault for not taking care of the security of their clients sin cards because there was obviously a trick this hacker found out about and was able to break into the security of those phone companies to access the sim cards.

rdbase

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Most students nowadays can learn simple hacking skills in their computer science class.
Some of their professors even encourage it for the reason of learning from it.
Although they believe it will be used for white hat purposes and not causing any harm to networks or stealing funds from banks or exchanges in this case.

uray

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Activity: 1400

Merit: 505

Quote from: PTCSuccessBlog on April 30, 2019, 12:26:17 PM

Joel Ortiz, a skilled SIM Swapper was caught and arrested back in May 2018. On April 22nd 2019, the District Attorney’s Office of Santa Clara County made their formal announcement about his sentence – 10 years in prison.

Ortiz was a 21-year-old Boston High School valedictorian and was very prolific at stealing cryptocurrency from SIM cards. The announcement states that he had hacked the crypto wallets (worth over $7.5 million) located on mobile phones of over 40 victims.

If he could have used his skills to make a better world rather than doing these kind of activity he could have made a better living in terms of his career and his life, technology can be used for good as well as bad and it depends upon an individual morality on what he does with his skills and there is nothing wrong in locking him behind bars for his acts, as every action does have a consequence so that it will be a precedent for everyone to view in the future so they will not do those activities .

adzino

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Quote from: PTCSuccessBlog on April 30, 2019, 12:26:17 PM

Joel Ortiz, a skilled SIM Swapper was caught and arrested back in May 2018. On April 22nd 2019, the District Attorney’s Office of Santa Clara County made their formal announcement about his sentence – 10 years in prison.

Ortiz was a 21-year-old Boston High School valedictorian and was very prolific at stealing cryptocurrency from SIM cards. The announcement states that he had hacked the crypto wallets (worth over $7.5 million) located on mobile phones of over 40 victims.

According to the announcement, it only took Ortiz just a few minutes to steal more than $5.2 million in crypto from one Cupertino cryptocurrency entrepreneur. He performed this theft back in May of 2018.

https://www.bitcrypt.co/tech-savvy-student-steals-millions-cryptocurrency/

I had to read the article after you said "stole crypto currencies from SIM card". I was like, how the hell does someone steal crypto currencies from SIM card. It's not like you can store your coin in a SIM card! But, then yeah, he used victims SIM card to have access to their account.
Sad people are not aware of security. I wonder where have they saved all these huge amount of coins that could be stole by having access to only their phone number...

electronicash

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Quote from: stompix on May 08, 2019, 12:30:57 PM

Quote from: Genemind on April 30, 2019, 12:46:11 PM

Ortiz was a smart hacker

Quote from: CryptoBry on May 01, 2019, 08:38:44 PM

Such a great talent and genius can be put to use for the benefit of the cryptocurrency industry.

Quote from: pundit on May 02, 2019, 09:53:03 AM

I appreciate Joel Ortiz tech skills,

You guys didn't read more than 3 lines of that article, did you?

Quote

Joel Ortiz, a skilled SIM Swapper

Do you know what a SIM Swapper is? A guy that goes to a phone company office and tries with a convincing story to have the victim's sim card replaced and handed to him. Then he uses that sim card to have all the passwords of the victim's social media accounts or exchange reset and takes control over them.

There is no "hacking", no "tech-savvy" , he is at the same level as a guy trying to sell snake oil to some morons.

lol well his sob story to the phone company is working and so they replaced the sim. they find it very tech savvy. Cheesy

he took an easy route to get millions though, $7M is a lot of money for a student. a house of his own, car, girls and party must have all he got.

stompix

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Blackjack.fun

Quote from: Genemind on April 30, 2019, 12:46:11 PM

Ortiz was a smart hacker

Quote from: CryptoBry on May 01, 2019, 08:38:44 PM

Such a great talent and genius can be put to use for the benefit of the cryptocurrency industry.

Quote from: pundit on May 02, 2019, 09:53:03 AM

I appreciate Joel Ortiz tech skills,

You guys didn't read more than 3 lines of that article, did you?

Quote

Joel Ortiz, a skilled SIM Swapper

Do you know what a SIM Swapper is? A guy that goes to a phone company office and tries with a convincing story to have the victim's sim card replaced and handed to him. Then he uses that sim card to have all the passwords of the victim's social media accounts or exchange reset and takes control over them.

There is no "hacking", no "tech-savvy" , he is at the same level as a guy trying to sell snake oil to some morons.

vapourminer

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Activity: 4354

Merit: 3614

what is this "brake pedal" you speak of?

Quote from: vit05 on May 01, 2019, 03:27:37 PM

SIM cards are not reliable. Your mobile number can not be your only 2fa method as it can be easily cloned or stolen.

basically this.

however google auth 2fa is not related to a sim. clone or take my phone number and you do not get the google auth seed so its useless. if the phone is physically stolen, one needs to have the phone wipe itself, either automatically or via software command. lots of ways to do that.

so if my phone is cloned or lost or whatever i just get a new phone, manually load the google auth seed for the various sites from the paper backups i made (and get a new seed by turning 2fa off then on again if needed. that gives a new seed) and im on my way. google auth runs on computers and tablets also so i can do the 2fa seed reset with pretty much any device.

pundit

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Merit: 104

I appreciate Joel Ortiz tech skills, Its not easy to hack crypto wallets of 40 people and that too for this high amount but he used his skills for the wrong cause and for this reason he has waste his 10 precious years in jail. If he could have used his skills in positive manner then he might have opened his first door towards success. Stealing someone's hard earned money is a crime and Joel Ortiz has to pay for that.

omone1

member

Activity: 845

Merit: 52

This is ridiculous and undeserving. For a 21years old to be using his tech skill for the wrong operation. $7.5M is a huge cash to dare with. This is why securing our fund should be consider very important and never to loos guard in any security feature possible.

jakezyrus

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Merit: 100

Quote from: CryptoBry on May 01, 2019, 08:38:44 PM

Such a great talent and genius can be put to use for the benefit of the cryptocurrency industry. How I wish that instead of victimizing other people, he could have put up his own fintech company offering many good services and products for the whole industry to enjoy. Anyway, he is still young and he can spent 10 years in jail sharpening his skills and I am hope this time around with legitimate activities that can make his own parents, friends and relative so proud. This is a great reminder to people of the same skills and talent to use them well...

Yeah . instead of hacking why cant he just create his own company and form his own team ? He can contribute in the crypto community while he can help other people at the same time . or what if he can just apply for a job on the blokchain crypto field ? I think he will get easily accepted due to his amazing talent and skills but its too late because he already done a serious crime .

Quote

Anyway, he is still young and he can spent 10 years in jail sharpening his skills

How can he sharpen his skills inside a jail ? I know that there are no computers and gadgets allowed inside a jail . not unless he is in special treatment or he have a connection inside the jail or he can be able to pay huge amount of sums for a special treatment .

CryptoBry

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Activity: 1008

Merit: 355

Quote from: Genemind on April 30, 2019, 12:46:11 PM

Ortiz was a smart hacker and yet I don't admire him because he spent all the money with worthless things. That was too huge and he just spent it with his friends. He's too young and will be spending 10 years in prison, I pity him but I guess he should pay for what he did. That's the reason why we have to handle our mobile numbers well. Hackers could do anything by just using our personal numbers.

Such a great talent and genius can be put to use for the benefit of the cryptocurrency industry. How I wish that instead of victimizing other people, he could have put up his own fintech company offering many good services and products for the whole industry to enjoy. Anyway, he is still young and he can spent 10 years in jail sharpening his skills and I am hope this time around with legitimate activities that can make his own parents, friends and relative so proud. This is a great reminder to people of the same skills and talent to use them well...

Indrawan77

hero member

Activity: 1274

Merit: 516

What a bad person, why people like to take shortcut to make them rich, he should be sentences to dead, imagine how people saved the crypto then suddenly being stolen, I don't think the criminal had spend all the crypto, it's hidden in a very secure place and something like this that makes the people and the government got a negative label on crypto

ecnalubma

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Another life to be wasted in prison, I thought he was intelligent I wonder he doesn’t know the consequences of he’s doings. Well its unfortunate for the victims to get hacked that easy they’ve been hacked thousand or millions but couldn’t provide a decent storage for their digital assets.

Topic: Tech Savvy Student Steals $7.5 Million in Cryptocurrency (Read 646 times)