Bitcoin Exchanges Under ‘Massive and Concerted Attack’

Coin Desk ^ | 11 February 2014 | Emily Spaven

[Errant]

A “massive and concerted attack” has been launched by a bot system on numerous bitcoin exchanges, Andreas Antonopoulos has revealed.

This has lead to popular exchange Bitstamp putting a temporary halt on all bitcoin withdrawals.

Antonopoulos, who is the chief security officer of Blockchain.info, said a DDoS attack is taking Bitcoin’s transaction malleability problem and applying it to many transactions in the network, simultaneously.

“So as transactions are being created, malformed/parallel transactions are also being created so as to create a fog of confusion over the entire network, which then affects almost every single implementation out there,” he added.

[Errant]

Mt. Gox may be right after all about a certain vulnerability in the protocol and someone seems to be making a move to take advantage of it before it gets fixed.

[marron]

Maybe. Or maybe instead of simply making it illegal, they are just going to overwhelm it with attacks from all quarters including technological ones.

[b4its2late]

All your bitcons belong to us!

[Errant]

Click to be Added / Removed.

[factoryrat]

Wonder how many NSA agents are involved. Don’t want to step on the toes of the fed monopoly, or allow the chinese to move cash out of their corrupt communist banking system, now would we?

[goodwithagun]

Somebody isn’t happy that genius entrepreneurs found a way around their fiat greenbacks?

[sten]

under attack by the issuers of fiat currencies

a solution will be found... and it’ll just get stronger

LOL

[dfwgator]

Government don’t like competition.

[Errant]

I completely agree with you sten!

Also in perfect timing:

JPMorgan Report Slams Bitcoin as ‘Vastly Inferior’ to Fiat Currency

[aMorePerfectUnion]

NSA ATTACK!

[bobby.223]

Those darn ‘bots’ gummin’ up the works again. We are DOOMED!!!!

[FatherofFive]

A made up currency invented by a hacker experiences software problems/ security issues. Who would have thought?

[Errant]

I just check mining, there doesn’t seem to be any issues with hashing and communicating results.

[Paine in the Neck]

Government don’t like competition.

And the Federal Reserve likes it even less.

[Errant]

All the news agencies (fortune, bloomberg, cnbc, nytimes, cnn money, forbes) are all posting negative news stories now. Talk about timing...

[Errant]

security issues...

[Zhang Fei]

Currencies can shrug off a lot of problems, including rumors and volatility. One problem they can’t finesse is currency holders not having access to their funds.

[sten]

jpmorgan... a respected voice in the world of ‘high’ finance

ROFLMAO

[RIghtwardHo]

Bitcoin is toast. What? You thought they were going to let it survive? As a former Prosecutor most people truly have NO idea how powerful even a state government is.

[Errant]

This problem seems to be isolated to exchanges and their third-party software and someone attacking a partial vulnerability. No problem accessing locally stored coins or transactions between mining pools, miners and etc., so far.