For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills • Hacker News Board

Re: For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills

#21

Post by rtpg » Sun, Jul 26, 2015, 4:50 AM UTC

superuser2 wrote: post #14

chrisper wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know any good alternative? I was thinking about self hosting and just use google as a relay.

fastmail.fm is where people disillusioned with GMail traditionally go.

Have you heard any story similar to what's happening with OP where fastmail support ended up resolving the issue quickly and in a timely manner?

I'm not trying to imply that it would be the same, genuinely curious if I can expect better by switching.

Re: For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills

#22

Post by johnpowell » Sun, Jul 26, 2015, 5:22 AM UTC

rtpg wrote: post #21

superuser2 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

fastmail.fm is where people disillusioned with GMail traditionally go.

Have you heard any story similar to what's happening with OP where fastmail support ended up resolving the issue quickly and in a timely manner? I'm not trying to imply that it would be the same, genuinely curious if I can expect better by switching.

I haven't had my account hijacked before with fastmail. But I have had to contact support and I was in touch with a real person in less than 30 minutes.

Re: For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills

#23

Post by superuser2 » Sun, Jul 26, 2015, 5:23 AM UTC

rtpg wrote: post #21

superuser2 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

fastmail.fm is where people disillusioned with GMail traditionally go.

Have you heard any story similar to what's happening with OP where fastmail support ended up resolving the issue quickly and in a timely manner? I'm not trying to imply that it would be the same, genuinely curious if I can expect better by switching.

Not that I'm aware of. I think there's an element of "grass is always greener on the other side." When the NSA thing first came out, people were publicly talking about leaving for GMail for Fastmail, since Google showed up in the XKeyscore docs, just as people felt superior about their Androids when the Apple Foxconn scandal broken. But in all likelihood they suffer from many of the same problems; Fastmail (and the various Android manufacturers) are just smaller and don't attract the same negative attention.

Re: For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills

#24

Post by Liru » Sun, Jul 26, 2015, 6:12 AM UTC

roflchoppa wrote: post #6

o87dv wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully the next step is going to be switching from Google to a different provider.

Yeah thats one way to address the issue (or even using multiple emails), but you know what's even better than that? Having competent customer support, that would be able to address situations like this. Esp. with the amount of people that are using these home automation services with "cloud" support, its only going to get worse the more integrated these services become. My friend has had a similar situation with the…

Wait, you actually had Valve do customer support? I think that's rarer than getting Google customer support, to be honest.

Re: For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills

#25

Post by id_ris » Sun, Jul 26, 2015, 6:34 AM UTC

nadams wrote: post #5

sorrythrowaway9 wrote: post #3

I know this is not 100% specific to this article, but this is happening right now to a friend of mine's gmail account. Scammer was able to social engineer the cell phone company to forward his number, then did a password reset, and locked him out of his account. 20BTC Ransom. He followed every single google customer service link/resource he could find and tried to reset link, which said they would contact him in 3-5…

I'm sorry if this sounds like me being a jerk - that's not my goal. I just want to point out cold hard facts. > but this is happening right now to a friend of mine's gmail account I can't stress this enough but please enable OTP on your accounts. Facebook, gmail, and even your Windows system if you are paranoid enough. Yeah it adds some hassle - but the value of increased security far outweighs the hassle. Also backu…

Is OTP one-time-password?

Re: For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills

#26

Post by bdcravens » Sun, Jul 26, 2015, 6:57 AM UTC

id_ris wrote: post #25

nadams wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry if this sounds like me being a jerk - that's not my goal. I just want to point out cold hard facts. > but this is happening right now to a friend of mine's gmail account I can't stress this enough but please enable OTP on your accounts. Facebook, gmail, and even your Windows system if you are paranoid enough. Yeah it adds some hassle - but the value of increased security far outweighs the hassle. Also backu…

Is OTP one-time-password?

Yes, typically synonymous with two-factor authentication.

Re: For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills

#27

Post by grogenaut » Sun, Jul 26, 2015, 6:58 AM UTC

roflchoppa wrote: post #6

o87dv wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully the next step is going to be switching from Google to a different provider.

Yeah thats one way to address the issue (or even using multiple emails), but you know what's even better than that? Having competent customer support, that would be able to address situations like this. Esp. with the amount of people that are using these home automation services with "cloud" support, its only going to get worse the more integrated these services become. My friend has had a similar situation with the…

Lol, I was 1/2 way through this email thinking I'd respond that the only one worse is valve... turnabout. I've never had them respond to me. I've got several tickets multi months outstanding.

Re: For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills

#28

Post by bdcravens » Sun, Jul 26, 2015, 7:22 AM UTC

So if a) users don't get smarter about security and b) the use of Bitcoin as a ransom currency doesn't get disincentivized, how will this play out? I can't see the status quo continuing; resigning to "oh well, the nerds have won, we can't do anything" isn't how the government tends to operate.

Would the government try to really hammer down on Bitcoin if this becomes the epidemic I think that it might?

Government regulation of companies that permit easily "hacked" accounts?

The introduction of personal insurance policies for online data that would pay?

Re: For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills

#29

Post by gknoy » Sun, Jul 26, 2015, 7:27 AM UTC

bdcravens wrote: post #26

id_ris wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is OTP one-time-password?

Yes, typically synonymous with two-factor authentication.

Google apps lets you generate a series of one-time use codes, which you can print out and keep in a safe/folder/notebook, so that if your 2-factor-auth device (phone, fob, etc) gets nuked, you can still log in.

I find it interesting that he could log in without 2-factor auth. Those things I thought were keyed to phone hardware.

Re: For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills

#30

Post by bdcravens » Sun, Jul 26, 2015, 7:56 AM UTC

gknoy wrote: post #29

bdcravens wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, typically synonymous with two-factor authentication.

Google apps lets you generate a series of one-time use codes, which you can print out and keep in a safe/folder/notebook, so that if your 2-factor-auth device (phone, fob, etc) gets nuked, you can still log in. I find it interesting that he could log in without 2-factor auth. Those things I thought were keyed to phone hardware.

Many 2fa implementations offer SMS (which would be compromised given a social engineering cell redirect) as an alternative to TOTP. (What's commonly referred to as "Google Authenticator" - it's time-based, so if you capture the initial image or code, you can actually set it up on multiple devices, so it's not exactly device-based)