Posted on 06/23/2019 3:32:18 PM PDT by dynachrome
Bitcoin can be traced but it gets more difficult. All it really is a giant ledger and everyone can see the ledger. The ledger is what validates the coins and the transactions. So if you receive bitcoin everyone can see that your wallet received the coins. They may not know it is your wallet but they will see your wallet’s transactions. And when you move them everyone can see which wallet you moved them to and so on.
It is semi-anonymous. Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies can be anonymous to the sender and receiver because anyone can create a wallet at any time without any kind of ID. So you and I can make a brand new wallet right now and if done correctly nobody will know we created those wallets. Then if I send you bitcoin to your new wallet you can immediately move it to other wallets, or trade it for other coins, or use it to buy things, or even move it to “cold storage” like a CD or jump drive for use later on. You can launder it into other types of cryptos or buy things with it or even turn it into cash if someone is willing to buy it from you directly.
So while it can be anonymous because anyone can create a wallet anonymously, everyone can also track where the coins go from there and perhaps at some point it will lead to the identity of a person by tracing the transactions from wallet to wallet to where it eventually is used in a commercial transaction. That person will be questioned where he got the coins and track it back from there. But, over time and if broken into 1000 different pieces with 100 transactions each it may be very difficult to find the original blackmailer. It is ultimately the same as money laundering - I’d bet most of the coins end up in some black market transaction to where it can be then converted to cash e.g. buy $600,000 worth of drugs and then sell the drugs.
What’s the point of skimming if we’re being skimmed? It defeats the whole purpose!
(From the movie Casino)
The taxpayers need to send the bill to the council members and kick them out of office. Then find the evil hackers and hang them on the courthouse square as a lesson to future hackers.
I work and make $60,000 a year from the gov. Lock everyone out of the system, and claim it's an outside hack.I know the only key to get the system back up. Here's what the screen looks like:
Create a false identity and send bitcoin demand.
Demand bitcoin deposited to my anonymous bitcoin account.
Get ten years salary with no taxes.
Bring system back up.
Oh I get how it could be done. I was joking that the government skims from us, then someone skims from them.
Like I said above all this kind of stuff needs to be privatized. Government monopolies are like all monopolies - they make bad products and services because there is no competition to make them better; there is no accountability; they don’t attract the best talent among other reasons...
If these services were privatized we’d get more bang from the buck, the private companies would have incentive to work hard to avoid these kinds of shakedowns and their failures would be paid by the shareholders or they would lose their contracts.
Whomever shook them down for $600,000 anonymously, why would they bring the system back up? They’re an honest crook?
I have begun to wonder if some of these ransom-ware attacks are “inside jobs.”
Specifically - are people with lawful access to the system deliberately clicking on infected emails, and then receiving a share of the ransom?
Or - are people with lawful access creating and implementing the attack and keeping ALL the ransom?
Almost right. They renamed it “President Barack Obama Highway” I was just down there a couple of weeks ago. I thought renaming it “the turd highway” would have gotten the point across with a smaller sign
A rogue IT person, maybe.
However, if you try to convert those Bitcoins into US Dollars or other major currencies, your risk of being caught, or your risk of leaving an electronic foot print, or your risk of being ripped off by other Internet criminals, is very high.
Re: A rogue IT person, maybe.
Yes - but ANY employee can do the job by just clicking on the infected email.
“if the bad guys are in some craphole like pakistan, well, the police won’t care much about Americans getting ripped off.”
So long as the Paki cops get their cut.
Prolly a city drone lookin at porn...
Because the perpetrators believe that Bitcoin payments are untraceable.
Why do these news articles always say Bitcoin is untraceable?
Because it makes a dramatic story.
Bitcoins are traceable. It is expensive and time-consuming but definitely possible with National Government-level resources. ("The blockchain is forever"). There are other ways to find the perpetrators as well.
The problem is that perpetrators will turn out to be organized criminal gangs of unpopular ethnic minorities, located in countries where the local Government protects them and takes a percentage of the theft in "taxes".
It is not a matter that can be solved by laws or court proceedings.
Fire the IT dept. it’s absolute
Incompetence what to have a daily back of all data.
I am convinced this mania to computerize everything in City government is financially stupid.
I have long believed it costs far more than it's worth to keep this crap going. Cities used to not have computers, and guess what? They still operated.
What has all these computer systems and networks done that makes them worth as much as they cost to buy, and then to pay entire departments to keep them running?
Do they actually save any taxpayer money, or are they merely a convenience for bureaucrats?
I think City owned computer networks are a scam, but everyone goes along with it because it creates the appearance of "technological advancement" and sophistication.
On a nuts and bolts level, it really costs far more than alternative methodology.
L8r
Riviera Beach, a constant source of corruption.
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