Tag Archive for: Bitcoin

South Korea boosts laws after hacker sells nude videos from smart home devices for bitcoin

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  • Hundreds of apartment buildings across the country were targeted, with compromising footage of residents’ private lives sold on the dark web
  • The incident has prompted the government to strengthen cybersecurity rules to protect residents in a country where 63 per cent of people live in flats

South Korea is reviewing online security regulations after a hacker targeted hundreds of smart home devices and sold intimate video footage of residents on the dark web in exchange for bitcoin.

Alerted by the Korea Internet Security Agency to the case, police last week launched an investigation and confirmed hacked video footage from apartments across the country were leaked online.

Thumbnail images of the video clips on the dark web showed scenes of private home life, naked bodies and sex scenes, said IT Chosun, a tech news website that exposed the hacking this month.

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Hong Kong cybersecurity expert warns of risks posed by smart home devices

A reporter posing as a buyer contacted the hacker, who said in an encrypted email that it cost 0.1 bitcoin (about US$5,736) to gain video access to an apartment for 24 hours. The hacker reportedly supplied the writer a long list of flats to choose from.

Smart home features installed in Korean apartments first began as intercom systems, but grew to have expanded functions. Many new flats today have smart home devices, including wall pad door locks, lights, heaters, refrigerators, laundry machines and air conditioners that can be controlled by smartphones remotely.

Some systems include surveillance cameras, which the incident shows is vulnerable to invasion of privacy. If a hacker succeeds in breaching the security of one home, they can also access footage of neighbouring apartments connected through the building’s network, IT Chosun said.

In South Korea, 63 per cent of households live in flats.



Many new homes in South Korea come with smart home systems installed. Photo: Shutterstock

© Provided by South China Morning Post
Many new homes in South Korea come with smart home systems installed….

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Widely Used Bitcoin ATMs Have Major Security Flaws, Researchers Warn

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A m,an using a General Bytes cryptocurrency ATM in Palma de Mallorca, Spain in August 2021.

A man using a General Bytes cryptocurrency ATM in Palma de Mallorca, Spain in August 2021.
Photo: Carlos Alvarez (Getty Images)

Many of the Bitcoin ATMs that have popped up everywhere from gas stations and smoke shops to bars and malls across the U.S. have major security vulnerabilities that render them susceptible to hackers, according to a new report by security researchers with crypto exchange Kraken.

The website howmanybitcoinatms.com estimates there are over 42,000 active Bitcoin ATMs across the U.S., a massive surge from January 2021, when Reuters reported the site listed 28,000. Such ATMs allow users to buy cryptocurrency with cash or credit (though not always the reverse) and process sensitive financial data. Unlike when dealing with regular ATMs operated by banks, the distributed nature of cryptocurrency networks and a lack of regulations mean customers are likely to have less recourse if something goes disastrously wrong. Moreover, target markets for the devices include people who keep money in cryptocurrency rather than banks and people who don’t want their transfers to attract attention, whether for legitimate purposes or otherwise. Many are also located in dicey locations like liquor stores. Thus Bitcoin ATMs have been juicy targets for malware and scams in the past.

Kraken discovered a number of software and hardware flaws with the General Bytes BATMtwo (GBBATM2) model of ATMs. Coin ATM Radar estimates the manufacturer has provided nearly 23% of all crypto ATMs worldwide; in the U.S., that percentage is 18.5%, while in Europe, it is 65.4%.

For example, owners have installed many GBBATM2 units without changing the default admin QR code that serves as a password, meaning that anyone who obtains that code could possibly take control of it. Other issues Kraken wrote it found included a lack of secure boot mechanisms, meaning a hacker could trick a GBBATM2 into running malicious code, and “critical vulnerabilities in the ATM management system.”

The QR code issue is particularly serious, Kraken’s researchers wrote, because it found that the default code is shared across units. This is a bit like buying a new computer and forgetting to change the password to something…

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Bitcoin Site That Used To Warn People Against Scams Gets Hacked And Becomes A Scam Itself

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How the tables have turned….

Bitcoin.org, the website for the biggest cryptocurrency and operated by pseudonymous bitcoin developers Satoshi Nakamoto and others, was recently hacked which led visitors to a giveaway scam. The website which ironically has a whole page dedicated to teaching users how to not get scammed fell prey to the heinous acts of the hackers when it couldn’t protect itself against a third-party pop-up that blocked the original website.

This isn’t the first time that the security of Bitcoin.org was compromised. In July, the website was hit with a massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack with hackers making a ransom demand for an undisclosed amount of Bitcoin, reported by CoinTelegraph. And this week, it fell a victim to hacking yet again. “Looks like Bitcoin.org got hacked and the entire site replaced with a scam asking for free Bitcoin,” Bitcoin developer Matt Corallo wrote in a tweet. The website went offline for some time as the real developers tried to regain access but it seems like the hackers got away with at least $17000, according to Crypto Briefing.

The hackers got access to the website on Wednesday evening and displayed a pop-up message which blocked the entire homepage of the original website. “The Bitcoin Foundation is giving back to the community!” the scammers wrote in the pop-up. “We want to support our users who have helped us along the years [sic].”

This isn’t the first time that hackers have made use of giveaway scams which seem to be getting common as days go by. There have been hundreds of Elon Musk-themed crypto scams recently in which hackers invite users to send money to a Bitcoin wallet by claiming to double their investment and of course, never give it back (that’s how scams work). We feel sorry for the guy who lost half a million dollars after falling victim to one of these scams but this is exactly why you shouldn’t trust anything on the internet. If it seems too good to be true, it usually is…

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Can Somebody Hack Bitcoin | MENAFN.COM

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(MENAFN- Tomer & Alon Marketing and Publicity)


Many people consider Bitcoin hack-proof due to the blockchain technology behind it. Ideally, many people argue that blockchain technology is revolutionary, potentially transforming different economic sectors.


This technology creates a distributed and decentralized ledger that fends off hacker attacks. The only way a person can hack Bitcoin is by controlling 51% of the entire network. Nevertheless, nobody has hacked Bitcoin so far. Therefore, many people are rushing to trade and invest in this virtual currency.


The success Bitcoin has experienced so far is the reason for the emergency of other virtual currencies. For instance, the People’s Bank of China has developed a cryptocurrency that citizens can access and use within their country’s jurisdiction. Ideally, this is a digital currency that the central government issues, and people can transact with it provided they adhere to the set laws. And people can use trustpedia.io to trade this virtual currency.


Nevertheless, traders and investors across the world are going for Bitcoin. And this has prompted some governments to think about and introduce stringent regulations. The emergence of followers’ legions, including hundreds of new virtual currencies launches and startup waves, predicated on the underlying Bitcoin technology has fueled the success of this digital currency.


Nevertheless, many investors are unsure whether Bitcoin is secure, despite the commotion and fuss surrounding it. So, can somebody hack Bitcoin? If yes, how can an investor protect themselves if this happens?


Bitcoin Security


Satoshi Nakamoto launched and introduced Bitcoin as a decentralized virtual currency in 2009. That means no single administrator would regulate or oversee Bitcoin. Ideally, this virtual currency is not subject to central banks or the government’s control and regulation.


The virtual currency world has grown due to peer-to-peer transactions over recent years, and Bitcoin is at the forefront of these transactions. People use the blockchain, a public ledger, to record and verify crypto transactions.


But security has remained a…

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