Well, the price of the popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin has seen a massive growth this year. But, now according to the reports from NiceHash, it specializes in crypto-coin mining, the company claims to have been hacked and $63 million in user funds stolen.
Mining Service Nicehash Hacked, $60 Million in User Funds Stolen
With Bitcoin getting more valued each day – the latest update realizes that the digital currency has broken the $16,000 barrier – it’s obvious that the criminals’ sense of opportunity is sharpened. NiceHash appears to have been the last casualty: it specializes in crypto-coin mining, the company claims to have been hacked. The loss may have gone from $63 million.
In a statement posted on its website and on social networks, NiceHash explains that the hackers were able to do so, through a loophole in their payment system, to completely empty the company’s digital wallet.
What is Bitcoin?
We can refer in generic terms that it is a virtual currency created in 2009, based on the peer-to-peer (P2P) system. P2P is a system that does not provide for centralized authority to control currency or transactions, as with other currencies (for example, the INR. is controlled by the RBI). Instead, money creation and transfers are based on an open-source network in encrypted protocols that form the basis of Bitcoin’s security and freedom, making transactions instantaneous among users.
The invention of a mysterious computer guru, who referred to his pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, this coin is created by means of a very complex mathematical formula.
The amount of bitcoins subtracted therefrom was not reported, but customers estimate that the wallet had 4,736 units of cryptocurrency. The suspicion comes from a wallet with that amount that came up suddenly in the last hours. Based on the quotation of the day before yesterday (6), this number corresponds to at least US $63 million; if we use the most recent quote, the damage passes easily to $70 million.
Some suspicion also falls on NiceHash itself because, so far, the company has not explained how the attack occurred, nor did it respond to press contacts. On the social network giant Facebook service page, you can even find customers asking for evidence of the invasion. In the statement, NiceHash states only that it is conducting its own investigation and has already reported the incident to the authorities.
The diamond was not only bigger because many NiceHash customers do not leave their digital coin earnings in the service portfolio. Basically, NiceHash serves as a platform for users to use their computers to mine crypto coins. Many of them transfer the gains to their own portfolios or negotiate them. Others, however, choose to accumulate the amounts in the NiceHash wallet for some time. So, these users are the most affected.
NiceHash also decided to paralyzed its platform for at least 24 hours, according to itself, simply to investigate the attack.
Moreover, we all know very well that more and more BitCoin is the order of the day, either by the constant rise and record of value recorded by this crypto coin or by its abrupt instability. Besides these subjects, there are several that gravitate around the coin.
As Bitcoin continues its walk to become “conventional” and in current use, it turns out that its increasing price rates are not the only thing that suffers a sudden increase. There is new research to note that popular cryptography now consumes more electricity than more than 20 countries in Europe, hence, we should also keen in our mind this fact as well.
So, what do you think about this massive invasion or hack? Simply share all your views and thoughts in the comment section below.
