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An unidentified 36-year-old man who owns a Bitcoin account has lost more than 100,000 euros ($117,000) worth of Bitcoins while he was logged in on a public wireless network in a restaurant in Vienna, Austria.
The Austrian police, however, claimed that they are still investigating whether the victim's account was already hacked before he opened his account on the unsecured network, CBS reports.
This latest case reflects the growing concern over the security of digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum amidst their growing popularity as a mode of payment.
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Bitcoin Account Holder Loses $100K Over Public Wireless Network
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(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday November 26 2017, @05:05PM (2 children)
Yeah, I'm thinking this is almost funny. Take the average bitcoin miner, and he's fairly sophisticated, at least somewhat techie. And, the people using bitcoin like to think of themselves as techie, whether they are, or not.
Then, he connects via a nonsecured WIFI? Right . . . obviously not very techie. So, this nitwit got his comeuppance for thinking he was smarter, or maybe even better, than the average luddite. It's worth a chuckle, at least.
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Monday November 27 2017, @03:44PM (1 child)
I think you are alluding to a MITM. If I were to run my Bitcoin-sensitive DNS lookups via my own hosts file, I could not see how I would be affected by an otherwise open WiFi. Please elaborate.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday November 27 2017, @04:44PM
That is ONE way to avoid MITM attacks. Using TOR might be another. Connecting to a public system, over which you have zero control, without taking steps to secure your own communications is just stupid.
IMHO, it would be BEST to only connect via a trusted network. Take care of business at the office, at home, or directly via wireless (the telco). Of course, we can't really be sure the telco is "secure" - there's so much tracking there, it isn't even funny.
And, of course, if you're sophisticated enough to set up your own DNS (even if it's just a HOSTS file), then you're probably smart enough NOT to install crap apps on your phone. The telco is already spying on you, why invite yet more spies into your conversations?