bitcoins

Wed
18
Jun
John Lister's picture

US Government to Auction Virtual Currency

US Marshals are to auction off almost 30,000 Bitcoins, a controversial "virtual currency." The coins have a current market value of around $18 million dollars. The government confiscated the virtual currency when it raided an underground online ... trading site named Silk Road. Silk Road was not part of the ordinary World Wide Web, and could only be accessed using special web browser software. That made it extremely difficult to trace anyone using the site and their activity. The site was well known in the digital underground community for buying and selling services of both a legal and ... (view more)

Fri
28
Feb
John Lister's picture

$473 Million Lost In Online Currency Scandal

One of the largest businesses that allowed people buy the online currency Bitcoin is filing for bankruptcy protection. The collapse means customers have almost certainly lost nearly half a billion US dollars in "real money." Mt Gox is a Tokyo-based ... business founded in 2009 as a trading card exchange (Source: wikipedia.org ). It has recently filed for bankruptcy protection because it has debt worth $63.6 million, but assets worth only just half over that. Customers had a total of around 750,000 Bitcoins stored in the Mt Gox equivalent of a bank account, which translates to around $ ... (view more)

Tue
03
Dec
Dennis Faas's picture

Man Accidentally Pitches $7.5M Hard Drive

Here's a lousy way to spend a weekend: searching through the garbage dump for a hard drive containing roughly $7.5 million in bitcoins . That's the lot of poor James Howells, a Newport, England, man who accidentally threw the hard drive away. ... Howells purchased about 7,500 bitcoins back in 2009, when the Internet currency was still in its infancy. Now, each bitcoin is worth an astronomical $1,000 USD, meaning Howells' bitcoin collection is worth about $7.5 million. "Totally Forgot About Bitcoins," Man Says Problem is, Howells -- who works in information technology (IT) -- purchased ... (view more)

Mon
02
Dec
Dennis Faas's picture

Rising Bitcoin Value Makes CryptoLocker Crooks Rich

A new report suggests that the cybercriminals behind the now infamous CryptoLocker ransomware scam are making huge profits. The main factor driving that revenue: the rapidly rising value of bitcoins . CryptoLocker is a form of Trojan horse known as ... ransomware. After being installed on a system -- usually following the opening of a malicious email -- it takes control of a user's system. Those behind the scam then demand the victim pay up if they want to regain control of their computer. The usual ransom: between $300 and $600 in bitcoins, a relatively new type of Internet-based currency. So, ... (view more)

Tue
21
May
Dennis Faas's picture

Bitcoin Faces Dept. of Homeland Security Crackdown

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has taken control of two bank accounts belonging to a company that exchanged US dollars for the 'Bitcoin' virtual currency. The department claims the accounts had not been properly registered with financial ... regulators. Bitcoin is not issued by any real-world financial institution. Instead, each unit of currency is represented by a unique piece of code generated by an algorithm. Whenever somebody makes a payment using Bitcoins, the details of the transaction are shared using a peer-to-peer network, similar to they way some users share music and video ... (view more)

Fri
07
Sep
Dennis Faas's picture

BitFloor Faces Disaster, Hackers Pull Huge Heist

Bitcoin currency exchange BitFloor is in big trouble after a security blunder resulted in the theft of $250,000. The heist at the BitFloor "exchange" came after operators did the online equivalent of leaving the keys in the door. Bitcoin is a ... virtual currency that isn't controlled by a government and therefore isn't subject to any seizure of funds. With no government backing, Bitcoin has value only so long as enough people agree to use it. Unlike most currencies, Bitcoin exists only online, with no physical currency (like coins or bills). Each Bitcoin exists solely as a unique identification ... (view more)

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