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Researchers cracked an 11-year-old password to a $3M crypto wallet

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Re: Researchers cracked an 11-year-old password to a $3M crypto wallet

#51
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the vast majority of ppl who use it will not be storing millions of dollars of crypto with it. Crypto changes the game totally.

People have bank passwords, social media accounts (which can be used in all sorts of nefarious ways), etc. Some may be 2FA protected, some may not be. Some may be protected by bad faux-2FA. Just because there aren't million at stake doesn't mean you can't bring someone to ruin.

You can try millions of passwords on a wallet without anything stopping you. You only get a few guesses on a bank site.

Re: Researchers cracked an 11-year-old password to a $3M crypto wallet

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The original saying is: "For the love of money is the root of all evil: ..." -- 1 Timothy, 6:10 It's not the money that is evil, it is the things we do because of the desire we have for it.

Yep, greed. Further correction though, it actually says “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” If you really go down the rabbit hole, pride is probably the root of all evil. It’s certainly the root of greed.

> it actually says “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.”

That depends on the translation you're using[0] ... it might be interesting to go back to the original (as best we can).

Also "all kinds of evil" can be interpreted in (at least) two ways, so it's ambiguous anyway.

But as with all these things, it's perhaps best to use the text to spark a search for a truth, or at least a useful guiding principle.

[0] https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/1%20Timothy%206:10

Re: Researchers cracked an 11-year-old password to a $3M crypto wallet

#53
post #3

> Michael says he was lucky that he lost the password years ago because, otherwise, he would have sold off the bitcoin when it was worth $40,000 a coin and missed out on a greater fortune. This is so true for stocks too

Yes but stocks are usually tied to a business producing some sort of service that people want, and therefore have value. Crypto is tied to, checks notes nothing.

That argument doesn't make sense, without taking a side, because it's not supposed to be like a share in a business.

You'd do better to argue 'currencies are usually tied to a productive country with some measurable GDP and therefore [...]'.

Re: Researchers cracked an 11-year-old password to a $3M crypto wallet

#54
post #3

> Michael says he was lucky that he lost the password years ago because, otherwise, he would have sold off the bitcoin when it was worth $40,000 a coin and missed out on a greater fortune. This is so true for stocks too

Yes but stocks are usually tied to a business producing some sort of service that people want, and therefore have value. Crypto is tied to, checks notes nothing.

> Crypto is tied to.. nothing.

It's being tied to US state law, via the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC Article 12 for Digital Assets), https://www.clearygottlieb.com//news-and-insights/publicatio...

  Article 12 – dealing directly with the acquisition and disposition of interests (including security interests) in “controllable electronic records,” which would include Bitcoin, Ether, and a variety of other digital assets ... Control under Article 12 is designed to be a technology-neutral functional equivalent of “possession.” It generally encompasses circumstances when a party has the “private key”

Re: Researchers cracked an 11-year-old password to a $3M crypto wallet

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but stocks are usually tied to a business producing some sort of service that people want, and therefore have value. Crypto is tied to, checks notes nothing.

I hate on crypto any chance I get, but crypto has damn near a monopoly in facilitating black and/or grey market electronic transactions. It is very in demand, for instance, in helping dictators evade sanctions, or helping criminals extort or trade illegally.

I suppose you could count Venezuelans going hungry as "criminals".

But I wouldn't.

Re: Researchers cracked an 11-year-old password to a $3M crypto wallet

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best and worst examples were in the same movie, IMO: Nedry's finger-wagging admonishment and all hell breaking loose, then later, "it's a Unix system, I know this!" and some exotic file manager visualization.

Mr Robot has some decent hacking scenes. At least they put up prompt windows with commands that are generic enough to not be hackTheGibson.exe type lame.

I used to work with a couple of the guys who consulted on the technical aspects of Mr Robot. From what I recall, the general idea was to use realistic hacks, but speed through the boring parts to keep the show interesting.

Re: Researchers cracked an 11-year-old password to a $3M crypto wallet

#57

"Michael... now has 30 BTC, now worth $3 million, and is waiting for the value to rise to $100,000 per coin." What the ? You presumably go from not a millionaire to having $3,000,000, and you decide to risk it to triple it? That's some next level greed right there.

FYI he's not gambling the bitcoin, he's holding onto it, and given it's history, which is the sub-story, it seems to be the smart thing to do not the risky/ dumb thing to do, especially in the current stage of the cycle.

None of that makes any sense whatsoever.

Re: Researchers cracked an 11-year-old password to a $3M crypto wallet

#60
post #30
post #13

So Roboform has almost certainly thousands (of not millions) of users with weak passwords, and not only didn't they tell anyone, all they give is a shrug when asked about it. What a bunch of bozos.

I mean how weak are they really? These guys knew the algo and still struggled and pestered the user over and over for the other parameters. They also had what I would describe as an extreme motivation to crack this.

If it had a default creation setting, it would be much easier to crack most user's passwords. There's still a motivation issue, but that's not a solid defense.
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