A long-time Bitcoin investor and his father recently discovered that they were robbed of approximately 25 BTC (equivalent to $919,000) in September, which the family had held in a personal wallet since 2012. The victim has proposed a 23 BTC bounty to anyone who can recover the funds.
Insecure Private Keys
In a video from a user named Rick, the victim revealed that his Bitcoin wallet’s private key was kept in a self-hosted password manager called KeePass. The KeePass vault could only be unlocked via another password, which was only known by the two men. However, this password was not as secure as that of a standard Bitcoin private key itself.
Though still unsure of how his private keys were accessed, Rick suspects someone may have keylogged their device and watched them enter their KeePass password. He confirmed that the device on which the private key was kept was internet-connected. Rick encouraged Bitcoin users to buy a standard hardware wallet to keep their coins in cold storage.
Tracking Down the Coins
Fellow Bitcoiners are already making progress in tracking down the thief. One user noticed that the hacker has been re-using his Bitcoin addresses and that his attempts to mix his coins have been relatively weak. The hacker withdrew coins to one of his addresses from Binance’s hot wallet after the hack took place.
The victim has no intention to keep the recovered BTC for himself. He has proposed keeping just 1 BTC for himself, sending another 1 BTC to charitable causes, and letting a bounty hunter keep the rest.
Hot Take
Bitcoin investor and father lose $919k in BTC theft but offer 23 BTC bounty for recovery efforts.
Bitcoin investor and father lose $919k in BTC theft but offer 23 BTC bounty for recovery efforts.
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