- The recovery of $2.3 million worth of bitcoin by the FBI from the Colonial Pipeline hackers has ended in fake assumptions about Bitcoin
- The FBI already had the non-public key to the Bitcoin wallet in take a look at, making accumulate entry to easy
- Hacking into a Bitcoin wallet is amazingly arduous
The facts that the FBI managed to build up successfully 85% of the ransom price sent by Colonial to hacking group DarkSide over the Colonial Pipeline hack has led some to speculate that the Bitcoin blockchain is now not as obtain as had repeatedly been assumed. Nonetheless, such speculation misses out one key truth – the FBI already had the non-public key to the Bitcoin wallet receiving the funds – and illustrates that a typical misunderstanding of Bitcoin and blockchain technology aloof persists originate air of the home.
FBI Already Had Deepest Key
The confusion over the recovery has stemmed from the advice that the FBI become in a plight to by some ability well well damage into the hackers’ Bitcoin wallet or the Bitcoin blockchain itself. Right here’s now not only. The FBI had prior recordsdata of the non-public key of the Bitcoin wallets aged by the hackers, that technique they had been in a plight to merely load the wallet and transfer the funds. Right here’s the distinction between a burglar breaking into your non-public home with a crowbar and them merely walking in having beforehand stolen a front door key.
Clearly, it is a long way not now not likely to atomize into a Bitcoin wallet – indeed there are companies equivalent to KeychainX that offer this as a provider – but for the FBI to be in a plight to crack a non-public key as in opposition to a password is thus a long way away it may per chance possibly well well desire a supercomputer and specially coded instrument.
Your Bitcoin Pockets is Stable
The FBI has now not revealed how or when it came to have the non-public key for the DarkSide’s Bitcoin wallet, however the truth they’d been investigating them for over a yr would meander some technique to explaining it.
Whereas the ability for the authorities to build up successfully sources from hackers is pretty data for americans who judge that hackers shouldn’t be in a plight to build up away with their crimes, it’s moreover pretty data for Bitcoin fans who can leisure assured that the blockchain is as obtain because it repeatedly become. The FBI can even very successfully be in a plight to peek, but it no doubt can’t contact.
