MrBachelor:
I giggled in amusement when I read some of those comments.

I had not the energy to argue with anyone.

I just relaxed, read the comments, and entertained myself with their sheer ignorance.


#TeamLegit.

Newboss:
You know nothing about Bitcoin, talk less of Blockchain technology. First, there is nothing like Bitcoin wallet. What we have is Bitcoin addresses. There's no relationship between two Bitcoin addresses on the Bitcoin Blockchain. No one can accurately tell that two Bitcoin address belong to the same person unless the person let's them know.

Did you even bother to find out how they seized the silk road funds? It wasn't a hack.

Move your coins offline, and your coins are safe. If no one knows your Bitcoin address private key, no one can "move" your funds.

Crispels:


Lol. You are saying this as an outsider who does not know how blockchain encryptions are created. There are ways to track these things using IDs, IP addresses, phone data and so many other means. There are simple data mining techniques and tools that will unravel all these things. And you said there is nothing like Bitcoin wallet? Google is your friend. Also try to read about data mining in blockchain technology.

Crispels:
There was a thread here yesterday about Woodbery stashing away his fraudulent funds in BTC wallets and some people were already making spurious claims that the FBI can never retrieve the funds back. If you know how American federal agencies conduct investigations into cybercrime, you will know that they don’t even need to torture them before they crack into all their wallets. The FBI has done this several times - cracking into the bitcoin wallets of more notorious hackers across the world(links attached below). Blockchain or cryptocurrency can never be used as a bulwark against FBI investigators. The only ways the FBI may find it more difficult to retrieve stolen funds is if you are based in China or Russia and you make use of some government-censored platforms. Do you even know how blockchain came into use? The same FBI agents that usually hack into iPhones that even Apple claims it cannot unlock as the producer? Most people don’t even know that the FBI owns the world’s biggest bitcoin wallet. What do you think they are doing with it? Or you think they are using it to buy bread and akara online? It will be foolhardy for anyone to think they can use American technology to defraud innocent Americans off millions of dollars and they will go scot-free.

Let Hush Puppi and his gang own different 1 trillion bitcoin wallets, the FBI will crack into each and everyone of them like a hot knife going through butter. They only need a single detail linked to Hush Puppi or whatever and they will access everything from the day they could only afford to purchase bottled water on Jumia. These are some of the things people study in Cybersecurity.

#SayNoToCrime. #StayCleanAndLegit.

Newboss:


I'm not talking about tracking or tracing. I'm talk about FBI hacking a Bitcoin address (getting the private keys of the address), as you said.

The term wallet is a layman abstraction. It's not part of Blockchain technology protocol. What we have is address. A collection of addresses is what is known as wallet. There's no relationship between two addresses on the Blockchain. The Bitcoin wallet companies provide a platform for you to receive, store, and spend coins.

An address is made up of a private key and a public key. If anyone gets to find out the private key of a Bitcoin address, they have 100% control over what ever fund that address holds. The public key is what we know as Bitcoin address, you can't move nothing with that. It only gives you read only access to transactions.

Crispels:
While we acknowledge the impact of bad leadership, the major issue here is greed and impatience. Nigeria is not the only country with bad governance - there are people from Zimbabwe, Burundi, Sudan, Venezuela and countries that are way worse than Nigeria but they still are not reputed for notoriety in cybercrime.

If it’s all about governance, why do people like Invictus Obi and Hush Puppi still engage in cybercrime even after finding their ways to developed countries where there are decent job opportunities? There are many Naija people living in the US who had jobs that paid over $40/hour but still ended up engaging in fraud. Why? The answer is greed and impatience. The urge to drive the latest luxury cars, wear the latest expensive clothes and gadgets ignoring the fact that life is a process. Most citizens of these so-called developed countries can’t afford to live such opulent life. We need to halt this desperate love for money from any means. If you think you are smart in tech, use your knowledge to invent softwares and platforms. Don’t use it to bring shame and disrepute to your fellow countrymen and women. Don’t rob innocent Nigerians off their dignity in foreign lands. You people are the Nigerians the average foreigner knows, if you mess up with them, you’ve messed up every Nigerian out there up.
We know the country needs better leaders but engaging in cybercrime is only making things worse. Please, let’s stop this now. Wear what you can afford. Eat what you have. Live within your means. And to every Nigerian out there - stop glorifying or justifying cybercrime or fraud. It has devastating consequences on innocent Nigerians who are honest in their ways. Imagine introducing yourself as a Nigerian in a gathering of people from over 100 countries and the first impression they all have about you is “cybercrime and scam” because of the activities of yahoo boys and the likes. Please, let’s stop this trend. Let’s rebuild our society and anchor it on the values of honesty, hard work, integrity and service.

#StayLegit. #StayClean.



Cc Mynd44, OAM4J Lalasticlala

Crispels:


And they can easily access private keys via advanced data mining. That’s my point. So far you have ever typed in your private keys while accessing your wallet(or address if you prefer that) online, your data can be mined using certain exclusive and advanced tools. They can also use network sniffing technology depending on circumstances. There are several ways the FBI can hack into any Bitcoin address or account - whatever you wanna call it.

Newboss:


Baba, hacking is not magical. It's not. Some voodoo technique.

First, you must identify the person behind the address, which is almost impossible if the person is cyber security conscious.

Second, you have to acquire the target network. That is, the computer network of the entity whom you have identified to be behind the address. Computer network here doesn't mean mobile network like MTN and co. You must infiltrate their computer network.

Third, your listening tools (spywares, rootkits, worms, etc) must remain undetected in the network.

Fourth, you have to wait for the person to use that network to perform a transaction using that particular address you wish to acquire the private key. A person in custody will not perform a transaction. Anyone who does that is not security conscious. Never spend directly from the fat address. The best move is to send the funds to a new address and spend from there.

Also, security conscious people don't use Bitcoin wallet companies (Blockchain, Coinbase, BitPay, etc) because these companies get to see the private keys of their clients. Instead, they use hardware wallet or paper wallet (cold storage). Hardware wallet allows you to complete a transaction offline within the software that comes with the hardware wallet, before finally registering the transaction on the Blockchain. This means that even a spyware cannot see your private keys because everything about the transaction happens inside the software. You don't type any private key except you want to import coins into your hardware wallet.

Newboss:


Baba, hacking is not magical. It's not. Some voodoo technique.

First, you must identify the person behind the address, which is almost impossible if the person is cyber security conscious.

Second, you have to acquire the target network. That is, the computer network of the entity whom you have identified to be behind the address. Computer network here doesn't mean mobile network like MTN and co. You must infiltrate their computer network.

Third, your listening tools (spywares, rootkits, worms, etc) must remain undetected in the network.

Fourth, you have to wait for the person to use that network to perform a transaction using that particular address you wish to acquire the private key. A person in custody will not perform a transaction. Anyone who does that is not security conscious. Never spend directly from the fat address. The best move is to send the funds to a new address and spend from there.

Also, security conscious people don't use Bitcoin wallet companies (Blockchain, Coinbase, BitPay, etc) because these companies get to see the private keys of their clients. Instead, they use hardware wallet or paper wallet (cold storage). Hardware wallet allows you to complete a transaction offline within the software that comes with the hardware wallet, before finally registering the transaction on the Blockchain. This means that even a spyware cannot see your private keys because everything about the transaction happens inside the software. You don't type any private key except you want to import coins into your hardware wallet.

Crispels:


I understand what you are trying to say but you are still not getting my point. Do you know how data mining works at law enforcement levels? The FBI already have many of their gadgets in custody with them. Even with just a transaction ID, they can mine as many data as possible using certain tools. All they need is just the email address linked to that wallet or even a transaction ID/history, and they will match it with the data they are mining.

If someone have access to your phone or any of your electronic gadgets now, there are tools they can use to mine your data from 2010 to this day - including all your passwords and deleted files. So far Hush Puppi has gone online to log in to that bitcoin address before, forget it, they can use data mining tools to get his password. I have a friend whose PhD thesis is on this. Give this fellow the phone that you use online for transactions. There are tools this fellow can use to mine out your bitcoin passwords and emails even though your gadget is switched off.

People use data mining and machine learning tools to crack scenarios like this.

maturemindsonly:


Not in support of crime, but he's actually right

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/drug-dealer-loses-codes-for-53-6m-bitcoin-accounts-1.4180182%3fmode=amp

2cribz:
We too dey hype fbi. Abegi. They were caught unawares.not like they got them. Social media flambouyant lifestyle with no physical office sold them out quick.

Crispels:


Was Invictus Obi flamboyant on social media before he was caught? With or without social media, those guys would still have been tracked. Most of the people who are nabbed for BEC crimes are low key people. Go on Twitter and see how many people are nabbed every month by the FBI. Many of them don’t even own social media accounts. BEC crimes are top priority for federal agencies.

Catchfirez:
Lol the op is here to overhype the FBI because it's USA.