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“My PGP key is compromised, and at least many of my bitcoins stolen”

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491–500 of 564 posts

Re: “My PGP key is compromised, and at least many of my bitcoins stolen”

#491
post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same legal processes that can be used to recover funds stolen from your bank account or stocks stolen from your brokerage account can be used to recover cryptocurrency. >When your crypto is stolen, the theft cannot be reversed, by design. If someone sends you a phishing link, gets your info, logs into your online banking and sends all of your money overseas, that theft generally can't be reversed either. (You'll…

> The same legal processes that can be used to recover funds stolen from your bank account or stocks stolen from your brokerage account can be used to recover cryptocurrency. If that is the case, then doesn't that destroy (at least) one of the basic principles of cryptocurrency that people constantly harp on?

No? Why would it?

The basic principle will be the same most of the time, you identify the thief and use legal measures to force them to return the funds.

Re: “My PGP key is compromised, and at least many of my bitcoins stolen”

#492
post #476
post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People forget bitcoin wasn't worth anything for a long time. You take care of an asset worth millions very differently than an asset worth pennies and too much of a pain to transact for cash anyway.

Someone being around since 2011 and believing in bitcoin, and only having hundreds of BTC today is implausibly rare. Back in 2011, a desktop CPU would mine thousands of bitcoins per month.

No, that's factually wrong. In 2011 you would need to mine with at least a GPU, and a single one would barely produce 100 bitcoins in a year if not less.

Re: “My PGP key is compromised, and at least many of my bitcoins stolen”

#493
post #489
post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can definitely steal houses though. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-59069662 https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2008/march/ho... https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/she-had-n... You can also steal stocks. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/us-charges-ha... > The vast majority of wealth in developed countries doesn’t rely on physical security to maintain ownership I…

But you can then by using law, unsteal it. If bitcoin's gone, it's gone. There is no recourse.

A house? Maybe. Hasn't worked out for the guy in the BBC story so far.

Brokerage account hacked, stocks sold and money wired away? Your chances of recovery are extremely slim. There's pretty much no recourse once that money has passed through a few hops.

Re: “My PGP key is compromised, and at least many of my bitcoins stolen”

#494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like possibly a supply chain attack targeted specifically at Luke Jr's server: https://twitter.com/naka_frodo/status/1609655813789949959/ph...

Let's see: 1) he thinks that "dedicated servers" are in any way secure 2) discovers malicious intrusion, but doesn't burn down the whole server and re-key everything 3) is supposed to be knowledgable enough to be a core Bitcoin developer but stays on a "dedicated server" after finding malicious intrusion. This is highly suspect. Either you have stuff that's not worth much, and therefore you don't pay to physically co…

> What kind of hubris would lead to continuing to use a compromised server, particularly when the compromise appears to have come from the hosting provider?

"Appears to" to the incompetent victim of attack, "I dunno how it happened therefore it must be hosting provider".

He has found no avenue of attack, decided he must be perfect sysadmin so it couldn't be say just a plain 0-day or fact he didn't upgrade some software with security problem and went on blaming hosting provider.

... then continued to use not only same provider but same compromised server for months.

Smart guy ego at work

Re: “My PGP key is compromised, and at least many of my bitcoins stolen”

#495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The salty posts about his hosting provider are confusing to me. He is paying $55/month and is expecting aid in forensics and audits? Is that normal for a low cost provider? Edit: Also it sounds like he didn't immediately shut down the server after the first hack? That is completely insane. I understand you want to investigate but you are leaving yourself wide open leaving the system running. It's been compromised. En…

To be fair, even if he was only paying $5 a month, if there was a tiny chance that the compromise was done by an employee, any reasonable provider would be all over it.

He had no proof aside from "I have found no proof therefore hosting provider must've did it".

Then in his arrogance he thought he's expert enough to "clean" the compromised server even when every security guy will tell you to take the data out and burn it to the ground if there is even a suspicion of compromise.

Re: “My PGP key is compromised, and at least many of my bitcoins stolen”

#496
post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I figured he’s a guy who works in the national security sector and didn’t want his extra curricular work drawing attention to himself. If he had to pass occasional polygraphs, it could create some weird situations. And if he signed a contract giving all intellectual output to his employer (including side projects), he could find himself in a lawsuit.

I've always believed that Satoshi is a pseudonym for a group of people working for some intelligence agency.

ability to move a lot of money outside of the banking system would be right in CIAs playbook

Re: “My PGP key is compromised, and at least many of my bitcoins stolen”

#497
post #488
post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same legal processes that can be used to recover funds stolen from your bank account or stocks stolen from your brokerage account can be used to recover cryptocurrency. >When your crypto is stolen, the theft cannot be reversed, by design. If someone sends you a phishing link, gets your info, logs into your online banking and sends all of your money overseas, that theft generally can't be reversed either. (You'll…

But vast majority of banks will call you and go "yo, wtf", some even outright lock your account (with many false positives but still) from doing so. There is zero chance that will happen for bitcoin.

OTOH essentially all relevant cryptocurrency exchanges will let you use security keys, most banks will not.

Re: “My PGP key is compromised, and at least many of my bitcoins stolen”

#498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird he cheaped up on servers paying 55 a month to some random vps provider.

And even after being hacked once due to !!! physical access to the servers !!! he was still looking for an "accessible" dedicated server instead of a trusted service or self hosting somewhere he could keep safe. He had more than 200 bitcoins. People are weird.

> once due to !!! physical access to the servers !!!

That was his inept deduction that was basically "well, I don't know how they got in so it must be hosting provider"

Re: “My PGP key is compromised, and at least many of my bitcoins stolen”

#499
post #229
post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great example of how "Bitcoin is trustless" means "Bitcoin only works is the trust is provided externally".

It's not just Goodness of heart. This case can fall under existing laws. You are not allowed to keep obvious transfer mistakes like these.

Yeah in banking law, there is no bitcoin bank...
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