French security official arrested for selling ‘secrets’ for Bitcoin

A French security official has earned themselves a fast-track ticket to the Bastille after being arrested for allegedly selling “state secrets” on the dark web in exchange for Bitcoin.

The unidentified agent, who worked for the General Directorate for internal security (GDIS), was arrested on September 26, Le Parisien reports .

It would appear the agent abused their position within the GDIS to obtain access to and falsify sensitive documents, which were then sold on the dark web in exchange for Bitcoin. The amount that the agent was able to earn from the sales of these documents has not been disclosed.

Le Parisien reports that the agent had been working with organized crime groups as well as economists who were keen to get see the government information. No link to terrorism has been established.

The information leaks were first identified by the Judicial Police. The GDIS’s internal security service was then notified, and pursued investigating the case further.

Every member of personnel within the GDIS has an individual code which tracks their computer activity. By using this code, the investigation was able to identify the perpetrator responsible for the data leaks.

Data files within the GDIS can be classified as “confidential defense” or “secret defense.” Leaking files with this level of security clearance can be punished with up to seven years imprisonment and a fine of $115,000 (100,000 euro).

This news makes quite a change from the usual stories of data leaks and Bitcoin. Usually it’s the black-hat hackers extorting Bitcoin out of unsuspecting victims .

If you’re interested in everything blockchain, chances are you’ll love Hard Fork Decentralized. Our blockchain and cryptocurrency event is coming up soon – join us to hear from experts about the industry’s future. Ticket sales are now open, check it out!

Reddit investigating internal hack after users report stolen Bitcoin Cash tips

Another day, another wild mystery in the world of crypto. Reddit has confirmed it is investigating a possible internal security threat after several members of the Bitcoin Cash subreddit – more commonly known as /r/BTC – reported their accounts were purportedly hacked and emptied out of their funds.

While the initial string of suspicions breaches allegedly began in December, several more Redditors noted that their accounts were compromised three days ago. According to multiple reports , victims began aware of the security threat when they received emails that the password for their Reddit accounts had been changed.

Shortly after that, affected users noticed the balance on their Tippr accounts – a popular donation software designed to facilitate Bitcoin Cash tips between Redditors – had been withdrawn without their consent.

Following the second round of breaches, a post on Hacker Noon documented the unusual activity, speculating there is a high chance the hackings were conducted with the help of Reddit employees. For what is worth, it is important to point out that the post offers no substantial evidence to back up these claims.

Still, the accusation prompted Reddit administrator gooeyblob to respond to the claims, saying their team is looking into the situation.

“Thanks for reporting – we’re not ignoring,” gooeyblob said . “[T]his was reported privately via security at reddiom [sic] and we’ve been investigating.”

Among other things, the Hacker Noon piece insists the Reddit passwords of affected users were somehow changed without accessing their emails. This suggests whoever is behind the breach has figured out how to access the password recovery links (sent to the users’ respective email addresses) without actually compromising their emails.

“ After ruling out all these scenarios, we can conclude that the hacker sends a password reset request to reddit [sic] on behalf of the victim and then uses the link Reddit generates to reset the password,” the post reads.

“ Considering that the hacker couldn’t have learned the reset link neither by lurking into the victims’ emails (no malware involved, no emails compromised) nor by intercepting the Reddit emails,” it continues. “[T]here is only one other place where such information is contained and can be accessed: Reddit’s outbound emails.”

What makes the matter even more bizarre is that the post also seems to be ruling out a malware attack. This leads the author to conclude the following:

We have contacted Reddit for further comment and will update this piece should we hear back.

For background, the Bitcoin Cash subreddit was briefly hacked to link to its rival Bitcoin subreddit (/r/Bitcoin) following the initial hacking.

While the two channels have had several run-ins over which cryptocurrency is best, there is nothing to suggest that a member of the Bitcoin subreddit is behind the attack.

While it is indeed possible someone has found a gaping hole in Reddit’s security, one thing to keep in mind is that the majority of breaches originate from third-party apps . Given that most affected users appear to be Tippr donation receivers, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if this is the case here too.

Clarification: Please note that we are not in any capacity suggesting that Tippr is the exact source of the breach, but merely pointing out that the majority of such attacks come from security flaws in third-party apps.

Binance suspends all cryptocurrency trading due to technical issues and users are mad

Update: Binance has resumed its service and it should be fully operational shortly. It is also offering a temporary 70-percent discount on all trading fees as an apology to its users – pretty decent gesture on their side.

Yesterday popular exchange desk Binance abruptly closed down its platform in order to perform a temporary “system maintenance,” promising the website will be fully operational again within 12 hours. But it seems the company has run into further trouble – and it now says its site will remain down for several more hours.

Needless to say, this complication has riled up some users who felt that Binance should have notified them about the downtime in advance.

“Surprise maintenance…” one thread on Reddit reads. “This cannot happen again without a [previous] notification…”

Meanwhile, the exchange desk claims the reason for delay was an “unforeseen slowdown” in the speed of their data synchronization efforts.

The exchange desk has promised its users that its team estimates the service should be back up and running around 4AM (UTC) on Friday (February 9). The message further says that users should be able to use “all other account related functions” at least “30 minutes prior to commencement of trading.”

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has since taken to Twitter to clarify the issues the exchange desk is dealing with:

Following the recent cryptocurrency boom, exchanges have been struggling with intermittent technical issues since at least December last year.

Indeed, heaps of leading exchanges, including Binance and Bittrex, were at some point forced to close down registrations in order to keep their systems operating properly. While Bittrex has yet to open sign-ups for new users, Binance was quick to resume onboarding new blood.

As a matter of fact, 250,000 people rushed to register with Binance only an hour after it re-opened registrations on one occasion earlier in January.