As Bitcoin reaches insane levels – up 13% on the day to $13.2K and change, the largest crypto-mining marketplace, Nice Hash, confirmed it has been hacked and over 4,000 bitcoins absconded with, worth over $50 million.
NiceHash has suffered a completely unpredictable and unforeshadowed cut and run^W^W^Whack, so much for the home miners and their extensive graphics card collections https://t.co/f3muLUtPAU https://t.co/bpqRl4CTob
— David Gerard (@davidgerard) December 6, 2017
The site has shut down for maintenance for what it claims will only be 24 hours:
Dear NiceHash user, our service is currently under maintenance.
We are sorry for the inconvenience and please stay tuned for updates.
Thank you for your understanding.— NiceHash (@NiceHashMining) December 6, 2017
Tweaktown reports that NiceHash transferred all BTC sitting in people’s wallets into a single wallet before taking the site down.
Why is my nicehash wallet zero? I checked the transactions on a 3rd party website and my balance was zeroed out.
— Bonus Legit (@LegitBonus) December 6, 2017
If NiceHash were hacked, then it makes sense that the hacker pushed all of the Bitcoin into a single wallet and then transferred it to their own wallet. There’s no way of getting it back if that’s the case, and if that is indeed the case, there’s no way NiceHash can restore money to miners’ wallets. If we’re talking about $50 million or more, it’s going to hurt, bad.
NiceHash CEO Andrej Nabergoj told WlkTribune that they are “assessing the situation and working with the authorities,” before issuing the following statement:
Unfortunately, there has been a security breach involving NiceHash website. We are currently investigating the nature of the incident and, as a result, we are stopping all operations for the next 24 hours.
Importantly, our payment system was compromised and the contents of the NiceHash Bitcoin wallet have been stolen. We are working to verify the precise number of BTC taken.
Clearly, this is a matter of deep concern and we are working hard to rectify the matter in the coming days. In addition to undertaking our own investigation, the incident has been reported to the relevant authorities and law enforcement and we are co-operating with them as a matter of urgency.
We are fully committed to restoring the NiceHash service with the highest security measures at the earliest opportunity.
We would not exist without our devoted buyers and miners all around the globe. We understand that you will have a lot of questions, and we ask for patience and understanding while we investigate the causes and find the appropriate solutions for the future of the service. We will endeavour to update you at regular intervals.
Then there’s this part:
no foreskin off my dick, that’s for sure.
Inside job?
State Sponsored i.e. North Korea?
Criminal Organization?
We are talking about big money now. People invested in this endeavor better know how to protect themselves from hi-tech criminals. Does writing some number down on paper or storage on a memory stick keep your crypto-currency safe?
BTC surges past $14k on the news!
If you store BTC with a broker, and they allow it, consider moving coins from wallet to vault. It takes several days in most cases to move BTC out of a vault (by design), but from what I’ve seen so far, wallets get hacked and vault storage hasn’t so far as I know. You lose flexibility, but gain security.