In one of the largest-ever breaches of a US telecom giant, AT&T revealed this week that “nearly all” its customer phone and text records were stolen after hackers accessed its account on a third-party cloud service. That cloud service, Snowflake, has been linked to several recent breaches, including those of …
Read More »Pressure Grows in Congress to Treat Crypto Investigator Tigran Gambaryan, Jailed in Nigeria, as a Hostage
When Tigran Gambaryan was first invited in February to meet with the Nigerian government in order to settle a dispute with his employer, the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Nigerian officials detained him against his will, stripped him of his passport, and told him he was a “guest” of the state. He's …
Read More »Silicon Valley Hasn’t Embraced Trump. But It’s Wavering on Biden
The supposed Silicon Valley revolt happened even before the disastrous presidential debate. “The Blue Wall of tech is crumbling before our very eyes,” Ryan Selkis, the founder and CEO of Messari crypto, wrote on X last month. He was referencing a then-upcoming event: Just days after Donald Trump was convicted …
Read More »The $11 Billion Marketplace Enabling the Crypto Scam Economy
As the crypto scam commonly known as “pig butchering” has exploded into a full-blown criminal industry that steals tens of billions of dollars a year, an entire ecosystem has formed around it. That sub-industry offers tools and data for finding and tricking targets, money laundering services to help liquidate stolen …
Read More »After a 10-Year Wait, Mt. Gox Bitcoin Is Finally Being Returned
In late February 2014, Daniel was at his computer trading bitcoin on Tokyo-based crypto exchange Mt. Gox. Suddenly, the website flashed white and became unresponsive. In a panic, Daniel turned for answers to internet forum Bitcoin Talk, where speculation had already begun: Mt. Gox was in trouble. Daniel, who lives …
Read More »Inside a16z’s Boot Camp for Crypto Startups
On a cloud-darkened morning in March, a group of software developers fought their way through the crowds of tourists and puddled streets of Central London. In twos and threes, they filtered into an office on the edge of Soho, hidden in plain sight on a street of showy Tudor and …
Read More »Inside a Violent Gang's Ruthless Crypto-Stealing Home Invasion Spree
Cryptocurrency has always made a ripe target for theft—and not just hacking, but the old-fashioned, up-close-and-personal kind, too. Given that it can be irreversibly transferred in seconds with little more than a password, it's perhaps no surprise that thieves have occasionally sought to steal crypto in home-invasion burglaries and even …
Read More »Fake Elon Musk livestreams promoting crypto scams keep popping up on YouTube
Is there any end in sight to fake Elon Musk livestream scams on YouTube? Over the weekend, Engadget reported on a YouTube broadcast featuring Elon Musk talking at what appears to be a Tesla conference-type event. The livestream had over 30,000 viewers at one point according to Engadget. One problem: …
Read More »Crypto Scammers Are Targeting Trump’s MAGA Supporters
Last month, former president and convicted felon Donald Trump announced that his campaign would accept donations in cryptocurrency. In the weeks that followed, the cybercrime detection firm Netcraft found dozens of scam websites seeking to target Trump supporters and swindle them out of their crypto, according to a report shared …
Read More »How Researchers Cracked an 11-Year-Old Password to a $3 Million Crypto Wallet
Two years ago when “Michael,” an owner of cryptocurrency, contacted Joe Grand to help recover access to about $2 million worth of bitcoin he stored in encrypted format on his computer, Grand turned him down. Michael, who is based in Europe and asked to remain anonymous, stored the cryptocurrency in …
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