One poor security choice results in $250,000 Bitcoin heist | Cyber crime - InfoWorld

One poor security choice results in an easy heist

Bitcoin exchange Bitfloor reportedly suffered a virtual heist of 24,000 BTCs, worth a cool quarter-million U.S. dollars. The incident not only raises questions about the long-term viability of the digital currency but also highlights how seemingly minor lapses in IT security judgment can have devastating implications. For the uninitiated, Bitcoins are a form of virtual currency that's been around since 2009. They have zero government backing; rather, they're backed by the continued actions of the computing power within the Bitcoin network. Investors can acquire them as payment or purchase them through exchanges such as Bitfloor, which is the largest of its kind in the United States and the fourth largest on the planet. In a thread on the Bitcoin Forum, Bitfloor founder Roman Shtylman posted that an attacker had compromised a few of the exchange's servers and gained access ...

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