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Showing posts with label Virtual Currency. Show all posts
Virtual Currency
Cybersecurity Dark Web Darknet Darkweb hackers FBI Virtual Currency

179 Dark Net Vendors Arrested in a Massive International Sting; 500 kg Drugs Seized


Global police agencies have confiscated over $6.5m both in cash and virtual currencies, 64 firearms, and 1,100 pounds of drugs - arresting 179 vendors across 6 countries including the U.S and Europe in one of the biggest raid on dark web marketplaces. The international sting operation saw considerable co-operation from Law enforcement agencies all over the world including the US, UK, Germany, Europe, Canada, Europe, Sweden, Austria, and the Netherlands.

The 500kg of drugs recovered by investigators during the operation included fentanyl, methamphetamine, oxycodone, ecstasy, cocaine, hydrocodone, MDMA, and several other medicines containing addictive substances, as per the findings.

The authorities dubbed the global sting operation as 'DisrupTor' and while announcing it, they claimed in a press release that the "golden age of the dark web marketplace is over." The roots of the operation go back to May 3, 2019; the day German authorities seized the dark web drug market, "Wallstreet market" and arrested its operators.

"Operations such as these highlight the capability of law enforcement to counter encryption and anonymity of dark web market places. Police no longer only take down such illegal marketplaces – they also chase down the criminals buying and selling illegal goods through such sites." The press release further read.

According to the Justice Department, it was the largest international law enforcement operation that targeted opioid traffickers on the dark web. The investigation witnessed an extensive range of investigators ranging from the FBI, ICE, DEA, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), to the Defense Department.

Commenting on the success of the operation, the head of Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), Edvardas Å ileris said, “Law enforcement is most effective when working together, and today’s announcement sends a strong message to criminals selling or buying illicit goods on the dark web: the hidden internet is no longer hidden, and your anonymous activity is not anonymous. Law enforcement is committed to tracking down criminals, no matter where they operate – be it on the streets or behind a computer screen.”

“With the spike in opioid-related overdose deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic, we recognize that today’s announcement is important and timely,” said Christopher Wray, FBI director. “The FBI wants to assure the American public, and the world, that we are committed to identifying dark net drug dealers and bringing them to justice.” He further added.
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Virtual Currency
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Marshall Islands to launch digital currency this year

The Marshall Islands' is gearing to release a digital currency this year, although officials acknowledged Friday there is much work still to be done to alleviate concerns of United States financial regulators as well as solve technological and logistical issues. However, the launch date of the currency, known as the "SOV", has yet to be decided.

“We plan to launch SOV this year,” said Barak Ben Ezer, chief executive officer of Neema, the Israel-based company that is partnering with the Marshall Islands government to develop the digital currency.

A primary issue for the launch is that following the boom in 2017 and early 2018, the crypto-currency market value has plummeted.

"We are working days and nights to prepare the foundations of the SOV initial coin offering, with the goal of being ready to launch once positive momentum is back to the markets," Ezer said.

"It will be done once all stakeholders are convinced that SOV is ready, risks have been mitigated, and momentum is building." Neema and the Marshall Islands are working through a multitude of US regulatory concerns as well as the technological and logistical side of issuing the SOV using blockchain technology.

The Marshall Islands, a tiny Pacific atoll nation with a population of just 55,000, passed legislation a year ago to develop digital currency as legal tender.

The plan has since been criticized by the International Monetary Fund, the US Treasury Department and bank officials in the Marshall Islands.

They argue it has the potential for a negative impact on existing banks and for money-laundering, but Ezer believed that once fully developed, the SOV will be one the safest monetary systems in the world.

The US Treasury has concerns about "anonymous digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, (which) are often used for illicit purposes by people who want to conceal their identity," Ezer said.
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Virtual Currency
Litecoin Malware Report Virtual Currency

Malware uses Your Phone to generate virtual currency for cybercriminals


Is your android mobile phone often overheating or the battery draining faster than normal? There are chances that your mobile phone is infected with a malware that will use your phone to generate money for cyber criminals.

Researchers at Lookout have spotted a new piece of malware targeting android devices on some spanish forums that distributes pirated software.

This malware, referred as 'CoinKrypt', is not designed to steal any information from the infected devices.  However, that doesn't mean that it is not harmful.  It will use the maximum computation power of your device to generate virtual currencies.

It will result in the infected device getting overheated and will affect the battery life.

The malware appears to be targeting only newer virtual currencies such as Litecoin, Dogecoin, Casinocoin.  Since, one will need high computing power to generate the popular and most valuable virtual currency 'Bitcoin', the cyber criminals didn't include the bitcoin mining process in this malware.

At this time, it is almost one million times easier to mine Litecoin than Bitcoin and over 3.5 million times easier to mine Dogecoin. Even though these newer coins are not as valuable as Bitcoins(1BTC is around $650, 1LTC is reaching $20), cyber criminals are probably hoping that one day they will reach high value like Bitcoins.
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Virtual Currency
Dogecoin Hacking News Security Breach Virtual Currency

Dogecoin hacked, 21 million coins stolen


Dogecoin, a virtual currency described as potential successor to the Bitcoin, has been hacked and 21 million coins stolen from the DogeWallet.

The value of Dogecoin is very low comparing to Bitcoin.  The current value is around $0.0057, means the coins lost in the heist are equivalent to about $12,000.


After analyzing the logs, they found that hacker gained to their filesystem and modified the send/receive page to send to a static address.

"We're incredibly sorry to all users who lost funds from the attack. Please use offline wallets as online wallets are meant for new users who aren't using them as a storage of coins" Reddit post suggest users to use offline Wallets.

"Offline wallets are more safe and secure than any online wallet due to possible attacks that can originate from anyone, anywhere."

Dogecoin promised to refund all lost coins.  However, they said in a reddit post that "refunding temporarily halted in the meantime. Even though millions of dogecoins have been returned, there's a lot of users will smaller amounts of Doge that need to be refunded."
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Virtual Currency
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Reserve Bank of India warns public against use of Virtual Currency Bitcoin


The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) has issued a warning against the use of Virtual currencies such as controversial Bitcoin saying that they poses a potential financial, legal and security related risks.

RBI warned in its press release that creating, trading or using any of virtual currencies including Bitcoin, Litecoins, bbqcoins, dogecoins are not authorized by any central bank or monetary authority.

RBI said since the virtual currencies are stored in digital form(electronic wallets), they are prone to losses arising out of hacking, loss of password, compromise of access credentials, malware attack.

The warning comes few days after Chinese government banned the use of Bitcoin in their countries Banks, pointing out the risks of using Virtual Currency.

Earlier this month, the French Central Bank also issued a warning about the Bitcoin transaction. 
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Virtual Currency
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Highly Unstable Virtual Currency "Bitcoins


Bitcoins are highly Unstable, the Price keeps going up to $1100 and then it crashes back one nite to $700 and again climbs to $1100, then again drops with negative news. Looks like buying has been more of speculative nature.

Is it worth mining:

Depends on what price you get the miners. Most of people who are benefitting are people who are talented to make the miners(and sell hashfast.com, BFL labs(butterfly labs).

The bulls are brilliant as they know what to do with the money they make. They rotate it, sell it on ebay/paypal or buy from one exchange and sell on other exchange which gives them more return. they resort to trading to improve the money.

There is a pump and dump scam going on, which leads them to pump it falsely and then dump.

In long run the above methods removes the trust on bitcoin and eventually the bitcoins will crash. Computer programmers/hackers/technologist should protect the bitcoin and not go greedy about it.

We evaluated some of the mining:

a. cloudhasing.com - Cloud mining for bitcoins. contracts are so costly like 1 Ths cost around $20,000 (for a one month pre-order booking). Now when we computed the amount of money you make at current exchange rate. First month you make good money like $10,000 as the difficulty increases(around 15% every month) the amount of machine you need is close to 20% every month to make the same money.

cloud providers also take management fee, contract payment fee, electricity - Cooling. So eventually you make only 50% of actual BTC which is made. So it actually takes around 5 months to recover your investment with all exchange rate, mining difficulty(maintained at 15% per month). If exchange rate for Bitcoin does not increase regularly then its not worth. After china talked about bitcoin , bitcoin has crashed with not much buyers. If there is negative news from india, US...most of bitcoin exchange rate would fall and there would be no takers.

Cloud mining companies out of greed are retaining the bitcoin (they earn from buy orders) and they will go backrupt eventually. One of the provider takes money 4 months in advance for cloud minning of BTC. by the time the contract comes its not worth.

b. Grouphashing(announced) contracts for mining litecoin. It is not worth. You spend 1Mhs - 1.2BTC for a year contract which is close to $800 in todays rate. Takes you 50 Litecoin in today exchange rate to buy. You may make 0.4 litecoin a day.

c. CEX.io is too costly and not worth the returns.

d. Miners like KNC - 3 Ths are better bet if they deliver on time after 3 months.

Bitcoin is a gambling. if Exchange rate constantly goes up, Mining difficulty increases drastic because every one wants to get into it. If exchange rate for BTC falls, mining difficulty decreases. The net money you make as investor is not really worth after all the pain.

The exchanges in india like BuysellBTC closes half the days. when you want to sell(price is high-they are shutdown) because they dont want to pay you. when its BTC rate is low, they close down because they dont want to sell you at low rate :) . So even if you make profit you wont get in hand.
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