Nicehash, a service that “rents” computing power for Bitcoin mining, has suffered a massive security breach. Resulting in some 4,736.4281 BTC stolen from users; worth some RM333,958,515.
Nicehash worked on the idea that people would want to own Bitcoin without having to invest in the hardware necessary for cryptocurrency mining. It also allowed people with spare mining capacity to sell their processing power for a little extra income. As a result, the service received quite a bit of attention for being the easiest way to invest in Bitcoin.
However, the service confirmed that a security breach occurred on its servers; and ended with all available Bitcoin wallets completely cleaned out. Nicehash, for its part, posted a response to the incident on Reddit, saying, “unfortunately, there has been a security breach involving NiceHash website. We are currently investigating the nature of the incident and, as a result, we are stopping all operations for the next 24 hours. Importantly, our payment system was compromised and the contents of the NiceHash Bitcoin wallet have been stolen. We are working to verify the precise number of BTC taken.”
There is likely no recourse for those who have made a loss as a result of this security breach. The anonymous nature of cryptocurrency prevents it from being tracked to a single person, and it is extremely easy to route funds into multiple wallets in order to hide where they came from.
[Source: Reddit]
