By a hack on the Bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox, where Bitcoins can be exchanged for regular currency, the value of Bitcoin temporarily collapsed. The company notes, however, that all suspicious transactions will rollback.
According To Mt.Gox, there are user information from the database of the company is stolen by a computer of an auditor with read access to the Mt.Gox database has become infected with malware. In this case, one’s account with a large number of Bitcoins are cracked. According to DailyTech the order of 25,000 Bitcoins. Mt.Gox states that the ip address of the attacker refers to hong Kong, but there can be few conclusions to be connected.
After obtaining the Bitcoins would the hacker the Mt.Gox user database, to purchase offer. In addition, he would have loot on the exchange site have to try to exchange it for dollars, but the affected account had a limit of $ 1000 per day.
The theft plunged the value of the Bitcoin on the Mt.Gox site quickly; an exchange rate of approximately 17,50 dollar decreased the value of the virtual money within an hour to less than a cent. Mt.Gox has, however, indicated that the site is temporarily not to use, and all transactions since the “digital resorted to bank robbery’ are carried out, it will rollback. Because of this, should the exchange rate again at 17,50 dollar come true. The company claims that users at a low price Bitcoins have purchased disappointed, but that these transactions were illegally. The Bitcoin price will be outside the Mt.Gox-site decreased by approximately 25 percent to $ 13.
To the security to tighten up, thousands of Mt.Gox users request a new password. All new accounts get a password that is encrypted with the SHA-512 multi-iteration salted hashing’algorithm. Further recommends the company provide its users to any e-mail with a downloadverzoek to open, because otherwise they risk their computer to infect with malware that specifically focuses on the stealing of Bitcoins. TradeHill, a competing Bitcoin exchange, has as a precaution, all transactions temporarily halted.
Bitcoin users are increasingly the target of criminals who are using malware and hacks try the virtual money to get. That would mainly be caused by the Bitcoins in the past months, steadily be worth more and piekten at 30 dollars for one Bitcoin.