Bitcoin News

Boston Legal System Damaged After BTC Ransomware Attack

Published

4 months ago

March 16, 2019

Stefan

The Boston Public Defenders system suffered a bitcoin ransomware attack a couple of days ago but they still chose not to send the bitcoins that the attacked demanded. They decided to use the system’s back-ups to restore the services and in today’s cryptocurrency news we find out more about the attack.

According to the Boston Globe, the decision not to pay the ransom means a massive slowdown of the system that will affect everyone within the system. The private attorneys started their work for indigent clients and now receive a small fee from the government. The ransomware attack also managed to interrupt the payments taking place at the moment and also locked up all of the essential digital services of the organization including e-mail usage.

As a security measure, the organization went offline in order to clean the viruses. An official statement reads:

“CPCS’s computer systems have been attacked and are not working properly. We are still representing clients. In addition, there is no evidence that confidential information from clients has been released as a result of these attacks.”

Initially, the attack happened on February 27. The organization believed that paying the ransom means a waste of money so they decided to restore the systems manually. Two weeks after, the entire justice system in Boston can feel the damaging effects. The agency cannot really say how long the delay will last or when they will get back online. In the meantime, people working in the agency cannot use their email or enter the agency’s website.

Ransomware attacks became popular in 2015. The attackers mainly targeted police agencies that end up paying the ransom. The public infrastructure is always a target of ransomware attackers since the offer public services and cannot end up being crippled because the people are the ones who pay the higher price.

The public defenders didn’t say how much money the attackers demanded. However, the cost to unlock a computer could start from $100 up to thousands of dollars. The attackers usually target victims individually but law enforcement agencies or other government agencies are not excluded.

Last year, a couple of Dutch hackers were sentenced to community service after attacking more than 1,000 computer systems and gathering over $11,000.

DC Forecasts is a leader in many crypto news categories, striving for the highest journalistic standards and abiding by a strict set of editorial policies. If you are interested to offer your expertise or contribute to our news website, feel free to contact us at editor@dcforecasts.com

Related Topics:after attack Boston BTC damaged featured legal Ransomware System

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Stefan

Stefan has been a Bitcoin Specialist for over 5 years. Providing daily news and updates for DC Forecasts.

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Altcoin News

Tim Draper Believes Crypto And Libra Are Bridges To A Bitcoin World

Published

13 hours ago

July 22, 2019

Stefan

The legendary billionaire and crypto fanatic named Tim Draper is in the latest cryptocurrency news again. His comments this time were geared towards Facebook's stablecoin project (Libra) as well as cryptocurrencies in general. As the news show, the billionaire Tim Draper believes that both of these projects are bridges to a world dominated by Bitcoin. Draper was a guest in an interview with CNBC on July 19, where he voiced his opinions on Libra, crypto and Bitcoin. If you are following our altcoin news, you probably know that Libra is a hot topic everywhere because of the regulatory concerns. Known as a Bitcoin advocate, Tim Draper believes that both Libra and Bitcoin are special and should not be pressured by the governments - especially in the United States. When asked if the world is now in a post-Bitcoin environment, the billionaire investor argued that Bitcoin represented a true innovation from the cryptocurrency world. Tim Draper believes that Bitcoin will also be ultimately the tool that reshaped borders, finance and government power.

“I think all these other cryptos are bridges to where we have a Bitcoin environment,” he said.

Appearing in the unique trademark Bitcoin tie, Tim Draper believes that US regulators were too heavy-handed dealing with innovations like Bitcoin, blockchain and related fields - which is what he told CNBC. He did not say anything about other altcoins which might have been featured in our altcoin news section. When it comes to Libra, he said that there was no need to demand regulatory assurances before the product had even launched.

“We’re putting regulation before the innovation — Facebook’s just announced Libra; they haven’t even been able to ship it yet, and the regulators are all over them,” he continued.

Currently, many best cryptocurrency news sites explore the link between Libra and Bitcoin. At press time, Bitcoin looks stable and is trading more predictably after a turbulent week which saw a lot of price swings as the Congress debated a cryptocurrency policy. Tim Draper believes that there is lack of Bitcoin support against government. He is in a lot of interviews recently, talking about being a Bitcoin bull, his investments in the crypto space as well as his outlook on the future of the crypto space.

Bitcoin News

BTC Network Is Now 8x More Powerful Than It Was At $20,000

Published

13 hours ago

July 22, 2019

Stefan

The network surrounding the most dominant cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is apparently getting more and more powerful than it was before. The BTC network now has more computing power backing its security than ever before, passing another crucial milestone as the hash rate reaches a new all time high. According to data from the monitoring resource Blockchain, the BTC network is in the latest cryptocurrency news for a new hash rate high of 79 tera hashes per second (TH/s) on July 20. This is a very important milestone for Bitcoin - and a measure that is broadly accepted, referring to the robustness of Bitcoin's transaction security. The hash rate of the BTC network has broken multiple records in the recent weeks and months. As we reported along with many other best cryptocurrency news sites, more recent all time highs were established in June (65 trillion TH/s) as well as the first day of July, when the BTC network hit an all-time high at that point, reaching a rate at 70 trillion TH/s. In the coming altcoin news, we can also see a positive incline because of the BTC network high. However, this record comes at a pause in the gains for the Bitcoin price - when the cryptocurrency is reconsolidating and falling off from the yearly highs at $13,800 weeks ago. Ever since then, it was the regulatory pressure which affected the price of Bitcoin as well as the BTC network in general. The most dominant cryptocurrency dipped to as low as $9,125 and the altcoin news showed bleeding in the other coins, too. The good news is that the decline failed to weigh on the BTC network performance. As we previously reported, the network behind Bitcoin is getting stronger and more powerful and the transaction fees remain low despite the fluctuations in price and volume. Last but not the least is the mining performance, which has turned a corner since the bottom of the Bitcoin bull market during December 2018. As we can see, this performance will now revolve around the May 2020 block reward halving. Analysts predict it to be the strongest at this point. Bitcoin's mining difficulty (which also hit new highs recently) will probably increase in the future too, mostly because of the hash rate getting stronger and expanding.

Bitcoin News

Bitcoin Is One Correction Away From Reaching $13,000: Analysis

Published

17 hours ago

July 22, 2019

Stefan

Bitcoin is one correction away from reaching the $13,000 price goal since the price briefly reached the $11,000 level but later corrected towards the key support level at $10,500 as we could see in the coming altcoin news analysis. The price correction is not influencing the investors since they noticed a couple of past days has been nothing but a rollercoaster ride. As noted in the analysis previously, the bitcoin price since the beginning of July shed about 20 percent from its value when it started closing in on the $13,000 price range. Also, the largest cryptocurrency dived to some of the lowest levels in July and breached the $9,000 level before forming a new low of $9,080 which allowed for a faster bounce back to the $10,000. The bitcoin price still doesn’t have the capacity to sustain growth above $11,000 but by looking at the hourly charts for the BTC/USD pair, there is a clear upward trend that is continuously going towards the $9,000 support line. The immediate upside is limited by the 50 simple moving average. The slide from the previous high of $11,096 managed to sustain a balance confluence that formed at the 100 SMA and the 61% Fibonacci retracement level which was taken between the last swing towards the $11,096. At the time of writing, a slow bullish momentum is building above the $10,600 range so bitcoin is one correction away from the previous 50 SMA in order to reach a key resistance of $10,800. If it goes past these levels, It could reach a price above $11,000. In addition, there is also a bullish trend line forming close to the $10,450 so if a break occurs under this trendline, more declines towards the $10,000 will come in the next sessions. The technical charts show that the number one cryptocurrency will likely struggle some more since the Moving Average Convergence Divergence has zero divergences while the Relative Strenght Index shows levels below 40. According to the crypto trader Josh Rager, bitcoin closed the week with no movements that between the primary support levels and resistance levels. As noted in the latest cryptocurrency news, there is a breakout expected after the $10,000 range due to the buyer’s exhaustion and demoralization.

Bitcoin News

Fiat Money Is Used 800 Times More Than Bitcoin To Launder Money

Published

1 day ago

July 21, 2019

Stefan

Fiat money is used 800 times more in money laundering cases than bitcoin according to the newest report published by Messari and we are about to read more in the latest cryptocurrency news below. The recent research conducted by Messari shows that Bitcoin is not really a financial threat as some claim. They performed the research after the recent remarks by the U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The data from Chainanlysis and the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime reveals that traditional money is used far more than Bitcoin in money laundering cases on the darknet. The results do not take into account the money laundered via conventional markets. The statistics provided by the UN are very different than the statements of Steven Mnuchin who overestimated the problem up to the point where he described cryptocurrencies as ‘’national security issue’’:

“Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin have been exploited to support billions of dollars of illicit activity like cybercrime, tax evasion, extortion, ransomware, illicit drugs, and human trafficking. Many players have attempted to use cryptocurrencies to fund their malignant behavior. This is indeed a national security issue.”

The results of the Messari research show the same thing that Europol already concluded in their report ‘’Why Cash Is Still King?’’ where they talk about fiat money is the number one tool used in crimes. In the reports they also describe how criminals still use fiat money in their operations rather than bitcoin and cryptocurrencies:

“Although not all use of cash is criminal, all criminals use cash at some stage in the money laundering process … While the world is looking with concern at the possible misuse of virtual currencies by criminals, this report may seem somewhat unusual in that it is not highlighting a new phenomenon or an emerging risk…money laundering schemes detected by law enforcement are still largely characterized by traditional techniques, in particular, the use of cash.”

As noted in some of the best cryptocurrency sites and reports, bitcoin is still considered as stable rather than fiat money since in the last decade the FED increased the currency supply by more than 12.664% which is more than Bitcoin did.