Network hijacker steals $83,000 in Bitcoin ... and enough Dogecoin for a cup of coffee Wow.Researchers at Dell's SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit (CTU) have identified an exploit that can be used to steal cryptocurrency from mining pools – and they claim that at least one unknown miscreant has already used the technique to pilfer tens of thousands of dollars in digital cash.The heist was achieved by using bogus Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) broadcasts to hijack networks belonging to multiple large hosting companies, including Amazon, Digital Ocean, and OVH, among others."In total, CTU researchers documented 51 compromised networks from 19 different Internet service providers (ISPs)," the Dell team wrote in a blog post on Thursday.By broadcasting malicious network routes via BGP, the attacker was able to redirect traffic from legitimate currency-mining servers on one network to bogus servers on another network that masqueraded as the genuine article.These spoofed mining servers allowed clients to keep mining cryptocurrency but they never issued any payouts.

All proceeds from the mining activity instead went straight into the attacker's pockets.Using BGP, attackers diverted traffic from the correct route (left) to a spoofed mining server (right) Source: Dell SecureWorks (Click to enlarge) The Dell researchers say these attacks took place over a sustained period between February and May 2014, and by their estimates, the attacker was able to make off with approximately $83,000 in cryptocurrency.btc-e bitcoin withdrawal feeObviously, most of that was probably Bitcoin, since it's the only crypto-cash with any significant real-world value.bitcoin zahlen österreichAs of Thursday, a single Bitcoin was worth around $590.bitcoin 2800But the Dell team says Bitcoin wasn't the only currency that was skimmed.linux bitcoin miner client

"The threat actor hijacked the mining pool, so many cryptocurrencies were impacted," the researchers write."The protocols make it impossible to identify exactly which ones, but CTU researchers have mapped activity to certain addresses."bitcoin bbsOne miner the researchers interviewed said he estimates he lost around 8,000 Dogecoins during one hijacking incident toward the end of March.bitcoin worth aud, such a haul would be worth $1.53 in today's real-world dollars.bitcoin rokThe Dell researchers eventually traced the bogus BGP broadcasts to a single router at an unnamed Canadian ISP, but no culprit in the attacks has been identified.bitcoin steam walletWhile the hijacking attacks were real and victims lost crypto-coins that could be traded for real money, however, the Dell team says the risk of future such attacks is "minimal."litecoin trader

"Unlike network routing protocols that can automatically initiate a connection from one network, both ends of BGP-connected networks (also known as a 'peers') must be manually configured to communicate," the researchers write."This requirement ensures malicious networks cannot hijack traffic without human intervention from a legitimate network."In fact, the SecureWorks CTU says two likely possibilities in the attacks they observed are that a rogue employee of the Canadian ISP was responsible, or that a former employee was able to compromise a router using an old password.The researchers say one way that ISPs can avoid falling prey to malicious BGP broadcasts today is to opt in to the Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) service, which uses cryptographic certificates to verify the origins of network messages.Cryptocurrency miners, on the other hand, have an even easier solution available: they can require their mining pool servers to use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption, which prevents connections from being rerouted to another server, even if that server has the same IP address as the legitimate one.

® Tips and correctionsHow does Bitcoin/Dogecoin work?From a user perspective, Bitcoin/Dogecoin is nothing more than a mobile app or computer program that provides a personal Bitcoin/Dogecoin wallet and allows a user to send and receive bitcoins/dogecoin with them.This is how Bitcoin/Dogecoin works for most users.Behind the scenes, the Bitcoin/Dogecoin network is sharing a public ledger called the “block chain”.This ledger contains every transaction ever processed, allowing a user’s computer to verify the validity of each transaction.The authenticity of each transaction is protected by digital signatures corresponding to the sending addresses, allowing all users to have full control over sending coins from their own Bitcoin/Dogecoin addresses.In addition, anyone can process transactions using the computing power of specialized hardware and earn a reward in coins for this service.This is often called “mining”.To learn more about Bitcoin/Dogecoin, you can consult the dedicated page and the original paper.

How difficult is it to make a Bitcoin/Dogecoin payment?Bitcoin/Dogecoin payments are easier to make than debit or credit card purchases, and can be received without a merchant account.Payments are made from a wallet application, either on your computer or smartphone, by entering the recipient’s address, the payment amount, and pressing send.To make it easier to enter a recipient’s address, many wallets can obtain the address by scanning a QR code or touching two phones together with NFC technology.Ok, but how does it work at Meltdown?We will convert your total into Bitcoin/Dogecoin current exchange rate, we will generate a QR Code which will show you the total in US$ and Bitcoin/Dogecoin, you’ll then scan with QR Code with your Bitcoin/Dogecoin Wallet and VOILA!after confirmation, you’re set!The Bitcoin/Dogecoin technology – the protocol and the cryptography – has a strong security track record, and the Bitcoin/Dogecoin network is probably the biggest distributed computing project in the world.