Federal Officials Recover Bitcoin Ransom From Colonial Pipeline Attack

Coindesk ^ | 6/7/21 | Nikhilesh De

[RockyTx]

only a 10 year-old
believes any of this

[DesertRhino]

This came from the federal government. The reality is that is probably a lie.

[JonPreston]

And of course, we need to always consider that this could simply be an outright lie designed to discourage other ransomeware attacks.

My first impression given what we know about our government.

[RetiredTexasVet]

Damn, there is no alternative left but to put pipes up the butts of animals to capture the methane before it can escape into the atmosphere .... wait, I wonder if Granholm has considered it as an option for her “Energy Earthshots” initiative.

[unixfox]

Our company got hit with a $128K ACH scam. The scammer hacked the email of the vendor and told us they would not accept a check but would accept an ACH transfer. We even called the company to make sure it was legit. We transferred the money then a month later they wanted to know when we were going to pay our bill.
We told them we sent an ACH but they said they never got it. Turns out the money went to another account the scammer setup.

Now the police are involved and the banks are trying to track down the account holder. It’s been a month so he’s probably long gone.

Lots of sneaky chiefs out there.

[Red Badger]

It is for you and me.................

[Karl Spooner]

Not making any accusations, but it looks like the perfect crime.

[US_MilitaryRules]

Maybe they can help this guy!

Man Who Forgot His Bitcoin Password Could Lose $220 Million
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/a-man-who-forgot-his-bitcoin-password-could-lose-220-million/ar-BB1cL47x

[Little Ray]

It’s not good.
I would rather the ransom go unrecovered and its recipients somehow be discovered and ‘disappeared.’

[TangoLimaSierra]

is bitcoin worth more or less today than when they had to buy it?

Good question. Wasn't that about the time it was around $55,000?

Today it's at $35,600.

[ncdrumr]

I’ve heard that also, how Bitcoin transactions were supposedly completely secret.

Bitcoin isn't secret. It's actually all public. Each transaction is public, but anonymous.

[Bones75]

You don’t really need to “trace” bitcoin transactions, the ledger is public and everybody can see it. Where somebody messed up here is probably allowing themselves personally to get connected to a bitcoin address, and/or having the address compromised somehow.

[alternatives?]

“Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said.”

You are correct. “Said” doesn’t mean a lot. “Flatten the curve” etc.

[LeoTDB69]

“I’ve heard that also, how Bitcoin transactions were supposedly completely secret.”

The exploding dye pack they included with the ransom helped them trace it.

[Vermont Lt]

Thieves are going to have to go back to unmarked bills.

What people don’t realize about Bitcoin is every single transaction is on a public ledger. If you have the “address” you can see everything.

[Vermont Lt]

Not sure where you got that information.

In reality is is exactly the opposite. In order to hide transactions you have to go to significant lengths. And even then it can be unraveled.

[Cowgirl of Justice]

Not in NC- we were paying 2.59 and it is still 2.89.

Of course, a year ago, we were paying $1.62 under President Trump.

[RainMan]

Had this argument with a friend over the weekend. It is only the press and government that want you to believe that criminals want cybercash because it is impossible to trace. Spend 10 min leaning about how it works, and you will realize that you can trace EVERY wallet that the cyber has EVER touched. That is what the "blockchain" is ... it is a permanent record of every single stinking transaction. Once they know what wallet got it, then the task is just finding out who owns the wallet ... and most places require you to register your wallets with pictures of both the front and back of your government provided ID.

I can hand you $100 and the government will never know that I gave it to you. If I give you $100 worth of cyber, every person on the planet can figure it out if it was important to them.

[RainMan]

That one is starting to hit real estate transactions pretty hard. I have a friend that it happened to at closing. Fooled everyone, including the mortgage company.

[M Kehoe]

Dear Ms. Monaco.

Sorry, I just don’t believe anything that comes out of the DoJ or FBI these days. To be clear, nothing out of the Executive branch, to include Treasury and the IRS.

Actually Lisa, I had lost trust in the federal government before you were born.

Have a nice day.

5.56mm