Tag Archive for: Bitcoin

Silk Road investigators charged with stealing bitcoin

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Two former U.S. government agents face charges related to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bitcoin while assisting with an investigation of the Silk Road underground online marketplace, with one accused of using a fake online persona to extort money from operators of the site.

Facing charges of wire fraud and money laundering are Carl Force, 46, of Baltimore, a former special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, and Shaun Bridges, 32, of Laurel, Maryland, a former special agent with the U.S. Secret Service. Both served on the Baltimore Silk Road Task Force, which investigated illegal activity on the Silk Road website, the Department of Justice said Monday in a press release.

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Network World Security

Another Bitcoin robbery: Evolution drug market closes, taking $11.7 million

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At this point, people who use Bitcoin have to know that their money could simply disappear at any moment, right?

The latest example is Evolution, the largest black market website left standing after the Silk Road was taken down by authorities on multiple occasions, whose owners appear to have shut down the service and run off with more than $ 11.7 million in Bitcoin, Ars Technica reported yesterday.

Former users of the Evolution marketplace are pointing at a Bitcoin wallet that was active earlier this week and holds more than 43,000 Bitcoins, according to Reddit posts quoted at Ars Technica.

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Network World Colin Neagle

Hackers force closure of Canadian Bitcoin exchange Cavirtex

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Canada’s largest Bitcoin exchange – Cavirtex – has announced its closure, saying the latest in a string of hacking attacks may have left hashed passwords and 2FA “secrets” compromised.
Naked Security – Sophos

Russia blacklists official Bitcoin websites

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Citing a court ruling in the country from September, Russia’s media regulator Roskomnadzor has blocked five websites containing resources and information on Bitcoin, including the Bitcoin Foundation’s Bitcoin.org.

A Russia Today article reports that Roskomnadzor has also banned “Russian-language forum btcsec.com, Wikipedia-style information site bitcoin.it, Russian bitcoin community coinspot.io as well as exchange service indacoin.com.”

Even Bitcoin’s proponents don’t see Bitcoin surviving in Russia. Igor Chepkasov, chairman of the Crypto Currencies Foundation of Russia, told CoinDesk that the censorship of Bitcoin information on the country’s public internet, among other measures taken against the technology, “is a dress rehearsal for the prohibition of Bitcoin in Russia.”

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Network World Colin Neagle