Bitcoin News

Boston Legal System Damaged After BTC Ransomware Attack

Published

1 month 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.

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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Bitcoin News

Thomas Lee: BTC Misery Index Has Never Been Reported During Bear Market

Published

29 mins ago

April 21, 2019

Stefan

Thomas Lee, the Fundstrat Global Advisors founder pointed out that the currently reported value by the company’s BTC sentiment indicator dubbed the Bitcoin Misery Index has never previously been seen in a bear market. In the latest cryptocurrency news, we are reading more about his interview published a couple of days ago. According to the interview, Thomas Lee noted that during 2018 the Bitcoin Misery Index has not been over 50. Now it has reached a value of 89 but according to him, each value over 67 has never happened in a bear market. He concluded:

“It means that a bull market is likely starting.”

Thomas Lee explained that if an indicator reports such a value as mentioned, ‘’six out of six times, there was a drawdown in the market.’’ He continued to explain that the drawback of 25 percent of the average in similar instances and the short-term, the market could see a headwind. He also pointed out that this could show that investors could decide to move their capital to other altcoins instead. Thomas Lee pointed out that bitcoin reached the 200-day moving average which he thinks that this could bring the recovery of the number one cryptocurrency and is happening faster than expected. This comes as a result with the previously made statements that we covered in our altcoin news when he claimed that ‘’the key number to watch is the 200-day moving average.’’ The breakout could also mean that the recovery won’t be difficult that the one in the past according to Thomas Lee. It can also bring bitcoin to a faster recovery all the way up to new highs. However, when he was asked if the new highs for the number one cryptocurrency achieved this year, he answered that he expects to reach the new levels but doesn’t know when. According to Thomas Lee, there are a lot of reasons why the new trend taking over the crypto market. for Example, he explained that the old bitcoin wallets are now getting new doses of BTC and the transaction activity is also increasing with the crypto exchange volumes. The number of active bitcoin wallets sees an uptick as well.

Altcoin News

Top Altcoins Record Losses, Bitcoin Drops Under $5,300 Again

Published

53 mins ago

April 21, 2019

Stefan

Top altcoins at least most of the 20 top cryptocurrencies are reporting slight losses on the day up to moderate losses to press time. In the altcoin news, we can see that the number one cryptocurrency has fallen below the $5,300 price point again according to the gathered data. Bitcoin is now down just under 1 percent at press time and it tumbled down from the $5,291. It is currently trading at $5,268 but looking at the weekly charts the cryptocurrency is up by 3.7 percent. Some of the top altcoins including Ethereum is still the second largest altcoin by market cap which reached $17.9 billion. Ethereum is down by 2.5 percent over the past 24 hours and is trading around $169. Over the week, the altcoin increased by nearly 3 percent. According to the cryptocurrency bull and analyst Brian Kelly, the next Bitcoin target is going to be $6,000 and that the crypto market is finding its bottom. Meanwhile, the top altcoins see mixed signals over the weekend which shows an unexpected week is ahead of us. As previously reported in our latest cryptocurrency news, the second-largest altcoin-XRP reached a market cap of $13.4 billion. This means that the altcoin is down by 2.7 percent over the past day and is trading at around $0.321. Over the week, the cryptocurrency is up by almost a percent and has a 7 percent lower price since the start of the week. As it was mentioned before, Fundstrat Global Advisors founder Tom Lee explained that the real value by the company’s BTC sentiment indicator dubbed the Bitcoin Misery Index has never previously been seen in a bear market. This contributes to the factor that among the top altcoins by market cap, the coins which report the biggest price actions to include Ethreum Classic, Litecoin, and Ontology. Bitcoin SV (BSV), among the top altcoins, on the other hand, is seeing some of the worst prices actions after previously increasing up by over 35% on the day, but it later tumbled down and is now trading at $56.42. There is no clear indication if this growth is going to continue. However, as it stands, the growth has brought a lot of positive attention towards cryptocurrencies.

Analysis

BTC Mining Becomes Profitable Once Again, Are The Bulls Back?

Published

1 hour ago

April 21, 2019

Stefan

BTC mining is now profitable once again according to Alex Kruger, an economist, an analyst who explained further on the subject. Following the coming altcoin news, the breakeven cost for the operations will lower down. Across the international markets, the price of the number one cryptocurrency is now at $5,265 which shows that miners make a slight profit per each block that is mined. BTC Mining is now at the breakeven price of $3,550 and a possible appreciation of the cryptocurrency. Kruger provided the analysis that shows the rate of electricity is now at $0.055 per kWh depending on the region where the process is happening. For example, CoinGeek reports an electricity rate of $0.073 per kWh to mine proof-of-work cryptocurrencies. This will increase the breakeven cost of the mining process. The analyst described further:

“CoinGeek is negotiating to sell its miners (62k units with 960k TH/s) and other assets (e.g. http://coingeek.com) for $45.5 million. Miners’ avg operational cost is $0.073 /kWh, resulting in $3580 operational breakeven (assuming used to mine BTC not BSV).’’

During the second half of 2018 especially in the last few months, the breakeven cost of BTC mining dropped below the price of Bitcoin which meant more net losses for the miners on their operations. The miners continued to operate during the bear market since many of the operations secure long-term energy deals which require expensive ASIC equipment. Andreas Antonopoulos, the popular crypto security expert, explained that bitcoin could seize to exist if it leaves the BTC mining protocol:

“Part of the reason that’s unlikely to happen is that miners have a much more long-term perspective. Meaning that they have existing investments in equipment and they usually purchase electricity on long-term plans, they don’t pay it by the week. And therefore, if they have to wait to become profitable another three months and they have the equipment in place, they’re not turning it off.”

However, many of the miners continued to secure the bitcoin blockchain network during the BTC mining process across the prolonged bear market. Now it seems that the entire process is profitable if the price does not drop below the $4,000 price point in the near term.

Bitcoin News

War-Torn Afghanistan Aims To Improve Its Economy With Bitcoin

Published

2 hours ago

April 21, 2019

Stefan

War-torn Afghanistan is looking into bitcoin to help rebuild the economy after it was left to dust. The goal is to use cryptocurrency as a new form of money in order to bring back the country in good shape and we read more in today’s latest cryptocurrency news. The recent Spring Meetings summit in war-torn Afghanistan aimed to issue a sovereign bond or multiple bonds to raise $5.8 billion for new infrastructural projects. The governor of the Central Bank of the country told the Asia Times that the country would try to partner Bitcoin with the $3 million worth Lithium market. The final result will be a digitally signed government bond which investors can get over the blockchain. The announcement comes after war-torn Afghanistan reached an economic turmoil over the past thirty years. The start of the crash started in the 1970s with a political coup that ended up with the assassination of the president Mohammad Dauod Khan. The tensions led to the Soviet Union invading the country. By the end of the 1980s, the entire country became a soil for fighting between the United States and the Soviet Union. When the Soviets lost the war in 1989, the United States left the country in the hands of the Taliban which led to the destroying of the country. War-Torn Afghanistan was left with the Wahabbi Islamist group and became the leaders behind the terrifying 9/11 attack in the United States. The group led to the launch of the biggest wars against the Taliban and the United States. The country was devastated and had its economy destroyed. The GDP of the country dropped during the 1980s by losing capital, transport, infrastructure and much more. War-Torn Afghanistan had its population fleeing the country and the ones who left are leaving in poverty. As the headlines in the best cryptocurrency news sites reported, Afghanistan’s external debt reached high risks. Reports by the International Monetary Fund noted:

“Even a gradual replacement of donor grants with loan financing (a customized illustrative scenario) would quickly lead to an unsustainable debt burden.”

Bitcoin could be the solution for the problem in war-torn Afghanistan since it offers a closer path to international markets.