Hackers steal $97 mil from Japanese crypto exchange

Not again, surely?

With the money these guys make they should be hiring white hats for security.

I be the elderly people in Japan with millions of yen under their futon are having a good giggle at this.

This week Mizuho just made (again) headlines about being inept when it comes to IT. One could have thought that companies run by the IT-crowd would do better. Nope...

When an inept member of the old boys club or some bureaucrat who has descended with a golden parachute is made incharge of things.

My money is safe. Oh wait, I'm still dealing in cash.

Is not rare anymore for hackers now to conveniently steal cryptocurrency on a large scale everywhere around the world. Considering many countries are now embracing the crypto currency. In my opinion i still don't get the appeal of this whole thing. Plus i find mining the currency is even more harming to society.

In my opinion i still don't get the appeal of this whole thing.

If you are decent , law abiding person maybe you are right, it does seem a bit risky.

I rather invest in tangible gold . EMP blast was ever to happen out of war say goodbye to all the computers.the value of gold and it’s can be used and sold in any country but of course carrying tons of nuggets won’t be Traveling with it to far.

In my opinion i still don't get the appeal of this whole thing. 

If you don’t get the appeal of crypto it’s exactly because - you just don’t get it. How about doing some research and then try saying that?

EMP blast was ever to happen out of war say goodbye to all the computers

This would also render the fiat banking system useless. So unless you're sitting on wads of cash, and/or have your gold in your physical possession, you're no worse off than holding crypto. And if such an event happens, we're gonna have bigger problem to worry about than money.

Blue, you left this off your list for a start, quote: “a hacker stole assets worth $600 million last week from cryptocurrency trading company Poly Network,”

If you don’t get the appeal of crypto it’s exactly because - you just don’t get it.

If you don't get the appeal of a fiat currency backed by the power of the state - you also don't get it.

This would also render the fiat banking system useless. So unless you're sitting on wads of cash, and/or have your gold in your physical possession, you're no worse off than holding crypto.

No it wouldn't because the state has an interest in maintaining stability within their territory. Governments would simply replace any funds that were in your account. Some people might have difficulty proving the exact amount in their accounts before the EMP, but savings could be estimated by looking at salary data and so on. The poorest would likely be over compensated for good measure.

I know a few persons gaming the crypto without any knowledge, who made big profits or big losses.

I know some others who have been studying the crypto markets for more than ten years and all have sizable profits.

One of them (a pro IT) bought a few thousands of bitcoins in 2009 at the then minimal price. He sold half of his holdings in 2014 at almost $20,000 each. He had also advised me then to buy some of them. However, at that time I did not even know what a bitcoin was.

Now I understand what 'knowledge is power' means.

Jacobo

Almost always an inside job!

@mods

Care to explain why my post was "off topic" but the original post I was responding to is not? Call it what it is. Censorship.

@M3M3M3

With crypto (specifically bitcoin) you wouldn't have to "estimate" anything. Once power/computers back online, it's all right there, exactly where you left it.

With crypto (specifically bitcoin) you wouldn't have to "estimate" anything. Once power/computers back online, it's all right there, exactly where you left it.

That's assuming at least one copy of the blockchain survives somewhere in the world and you weren't holding your bitcoin on an affected exchange.

Could be fake news, so J-Gov can take over the crypto market.

Almost always an inside job!

Hmmm.. .. many many companies (and this is not just in Japan) , implement dodgy opensource dependencies they know nothing about in their solutions. This gets them faster to market but, unfortunately, almost always introduces vulnerabilities.

That's assuming at least one copy of the blockchain survives somewhere in the world

If it were a global event taking out every computer on the planet, we’re screwed. Your life savings will be the last thing on your mind. In that event we’ve probably been attacked by an alien race or pummelled by a catastrophic meteor or some other extinction level event.

But let’s stay on the money issue and assume my bitcoin is lost forever. So what? In your fairytale version of events, the government is going to estimate my life savings and give it to me anyway. Or will people who held crypto be excluded from that for being naughty people?

Could be fake news, so J-Gov can take over the crypto market.

I am not excluding the possibility of a "government" involvement in this . but J-Gov ? please ...

In your fairytale version of events, the government is going to estimate my life savings and give it to me anyway. Or will people who held crypto be excluded from that for being naughty people?

LOL. So funny ! Love it

Japan needs to modernize its IT network.

So what? In your fairytale version of events, the government is going to estimate my life savings and give it to me anyway. Or will people who held crypto be excluded from that for being naughty people?

We're talking about restoring bank balances at regulated Japanese banks which are already backed by government deposit insurance, not restoring life-savings held in crypto, pokemon cards, or any other unorthodox investment vehicle.

We're talking about restoring bank balances at regulated Japanese banks which are already backed by government deposit insurance,

But the computers and data they held are all toast. That info all disappeared along with the bitcoin.

You’re saying they can somehow magically calculate this from employment history (also data is gone)… how do they know what I did with my income, how much of it I saved, spent or put into various assets. They can’t. What you’re saying is pure fantasy.

Let’s say somehow governments are still functioning at all, I agree restoring order will be their goal, but your version of it is not how it will go down at all.

If you don't get the appeal of a fiat currency backed by the power of the state - you also don't get it.

If you don’t get that both have appeal for different reasons and situations, and that neither is going anywhere, you don’t get it.

@Fuzzy

You’re saying they can somehow magically calculate this from employment history (also data is gone)… how do they know what I did with my income, how much of it I saved, spent or put into various assets. They can’t. What you’re saying is pure fantasy.

I think you're deliberately overthinking this to make it sound more unfeasible and complicated than it actually would be. The world is far less fragile than many crypto-collapsitarians seem to believe.

The overwhelming majority of Japanese people and companies have passbooks and other physical documents evidencing their bank balances at some point within the past 12 months. HR still has the paper employment contract you signed detailing your salary. The few who are unable to prove their bank balances in any way whatsoever could be deemed to have saved 10% of their salary for the past 10 years up to the maximum level of deposit insurance, whether true or not. It's not that difficult as long as you have an unlimited money printer.

Cryptocurrencies have soared in popularity as assets in recent years, despite their volatility and concerns over their environmental impact as trading them requires vast quantities of electricity.

Pfff, article written by someone who has no knowledge at all about crypto, it is not trading which may require a vast quantity of electricity but mining and only if the protocol of the crypto asset is "Proof of Work", "Proof of Stake" does not require any except for running the node.

Anyway, with Uniswap Pairs protocols, Farming & DEFI becoming more and more popular, all thanks to Ethereum's layer 2 networks bringing cheap transactions, (CEX) centralized exchange might probably be, in a near future, a thing of the past.

@M3M3M3

I'm not overthinking or deliberately trying to do anything. I just don't think that in the doomsday scenario we've been discussing, the monetary system would be as easily or fairly restored as you think.

Getting back to present day reality...

as long as you have an unlimited money printer.

It's the unlimited money printer that you believe is the answer to the worlds problems, that is one of the main appeals of bitcoin. There's a growing number of people who understand what this unlimited money supply is doing to their personal wealth. Bitcoin is a way for someone to choose to opt out of that system. It's not right or wrong, it's a choice.

@Fuzzy

There's a growing number of people who understand what this unlimited money supply is doing to their personal wealth. Bitcoin is a way for someone to choose to opt out of that system. It's not right or wrong, it's a choice.

Of course everyone wants to protect their savings from being eroded by inflation, myself included, but there are already countless assets you can buy to achieve this (stocks, gold, property, vintage cars, etc) none of which carry the risk of being hacked (if kept on an exchange) or losing substantial value if countries suddenly decided to take a tougher stance on money laundering. I don't begrudge people who buy bitcoin but as a hedge against inflation they aren't providing a solution which hasn't already been solved. If we're honest, what really sets crypto currency apart are the advantages it has in the anti-social spheres of money laundering and tax evasion.

Why would anyone trust their money with IT technologies developed in Japan? That is asking for it to be stolen.

No electricity, no bitcoins.

This will be the biggest theft

@M3M3M3

I never said it was the only inflation hedge. But it is another option with distinctly different characteristics to the other asset classes. Personally I think anyone that has enough money to be investing in those other assets you mention would be mad not to have at least some skin in the bitcoin game.

And I'm sorry, but your idea that it has no use except for criminals, money launderers and tax evaders is years outdated. It is generally accepted and understood these days that bitcoin is a horrible asset for such activity. You're far better off doing what crims have always done... Use cash, shady banks/accountants/lawyers.

Here we go again. Marketing is indeed a fascinating thing, how the heck did they manage to sell crypto as the next big thing is proof of that.

Honestly they should just shut down crypto. What useful purpose does it serve? As a form of investment it offers nothing useful from any national perspective. Money invested in crypto could be put into stocks, bonds, housing or just straight up consumption. All of which is more useful to any country than crypto.

China has the right idea. I wish the West would follow.

Don’t forget to blame this on Russians or Chinese. Japanese could not possibly be involved in this THEFT crime :), right?

frankly I don't care what got stolen from some Ponzi scheme.

Companies never seem to put enough of their budget in basic IT security.... can't feel sorry for them, you leave your systems open to attack expect things to get get stolen.

Our company had the "privilege" of conducting a penetration test and security audit at Quoine last year. Although they are not a government company or organization, their security or rather lack of basic security surprised us. Private companies here in Japan have some awareness of IT safety and security, however Quoine was one of the few exceptions. As is customary here, they did not have separate VLANs, access to the WLAN meant that the main VLAN was also accessed. Passwords on different pieces of paper. Open RDP ports, laptops with no encryption (ability to work from home), BYOD with no extra special requirements. SQL injection, a remnant of web development in the form of an ENV file available via google.... There was a lot more.

Anyone who trades with them is either suicidal or nuts.

$97 million in crypto disappears. What? Did Elon Musk make an unfunny tweet or something?