November was definitely a prosperous month for Bitcoins. The exchange rates hit record-breaking grounds, and there appears to never have been a better time to own Bitcoins. At the moment, 1 BTC equals $15361.78.
Of course, such drastic boosts cannot be blindly trusted or predicted. Therefore, many analysts warn Bitcoin-owners that the meteoric rise of this cryptocurrency can be very temporary. Nevertheless, this probably won’t stop people from investing into the Bitcoin marketplace.
Hackers steal 4,700 BTC from NiceHash
Enough about the fruitful journey of Bitcoin. It is about time to focus on a more unpleasant issue. News portals have reported an incident in a Slovenian-based bitcoin mining marketplace called NiceHash. Its services were halted on Thursday due to an unauthorized access and theft of 4,7000 Bitcoins.
When the incident was reported, the value of these Bitcoins reached approximately $64 million dollars. However, now, it has increased to $72 million dollars. With the sudden peak of Bitcoin rates, it is no wonder that hackers focused on obtaining as much as possible.
Security researchers are explaining that the hack was no amateur job: the attack was refined and included sophisticated social engineering. If you are not familiar with NiceHash services, they help people sell spare processing time on their computers to miner-owners.
The attack was detected when NiceHash clients announced that their Bitcoin wallets have been cleaned. The official website Nicehash.com is currently unavailable and the owners have left an official press release, regarding the NiceHash security breach.
They begin by explaining that a data theft really did occur and the investigation is ongoing. The service promises to come back with more information about the hack in the coming days. It also explained that the company has contacted the relevant authorities and law enforcement agencies. With their help, NiceHash is hoping to achieve better results during the investigation of the hack.
If you are a client of NiceHash, it is recommended that you change passwords as a security measure. It is unknown whether credentials have been stolen, but it is recommended as an additional precaution which cannot hurt. Please be rational during the investigation of the unauthorized access and follow the most recent news from NiceHash.
While everyone is raving about the success of Bitcoins, do not forget that hackers are just the same. Differently from clean-living people, crooks always attempt to exploit every situation by pursuing vicious strategies. Now, unidentified hackers targeted NiceHash and stole an impressive amount of Bitcoins. We do hope that the company, together with law enforcement agencies, will be able to get to the bottom of this incident and arrest people responsible.
Source: cnbc.com.
