The world is an amazing place. From the SMH:
A four-month-old Australian Bitcoin bank holding more than $1 million has been hacked, leaving an unknown amount of customers in the lurch including a man who claims he was holding the virtual currency to buy a house with his girlfriend.
The alleged hacking incident happened on October 26, with the service’s operator, known only as ‘‘Tradefortress’’, saying hackers have stolen all 4100 Bitcoins held by the wallet service, or $1.3 million at time of writing. It wasn’t until this week that he decided to notify customers.
The incident again raises questions as to whether Bitcoin is a viable, stable and secure currency.
…The site claimed to be ‘‘one of the most secure web wallets on the market’’ and charged customers a small fee to store their coins.
As well as utilising two-factor authentication and location-based email confirmation, it claimed it was set-up to prevent ‘‘the hack of Bitcoins even if the web server was compromised’’.
It now seems that claim has been proven untrue, with Tradefortress telling users on the site: ‘‘I don’t recommend storing any Bitcoins accessible on computers connected to the internet.’’
In an email interview with Fairfax Media, he said he would try to refund some of the hacked money using more than 1000 Bitcoins he personally owned and some not taken by hackers.
