Mt. Gox CEO’s Blog Hacked

Mt. Gox, the Bitcoin exchange that has fallen from grace, has not quite reached the bottom just yet. We have just heard word that Mt. Gox’s CEO, Mark Karpeles, had his personal blog that is known as MagicalTux.net, in addition to his Tumblr and Reddit accounts, hacked. The person(s) behind this particular hack also left a “MtGox2014Leak.zip” which allegedly points out “relevant database dumps, csv exports, specialized tools, and some highlighted summaries compiled from data.” Of course, it is highly recommended against downloading any kind of executable file from untrusted sources, but some folks who have decided to take the plunge have verified on Reddit as well as Twitter that their personal account balances, along with the data within, is available as an Excel spreadsheet, being tied in to the User ID that was part of their Mt. Gox registration e-mail.

Assuming the leaked information that has appeared is valid, apparently users have already deposited a mountainous sum of 951,116.21905382 Bitcoins. At a news conference in Japan, Karpeles laid claim that 850,000 Bitcoins (which is worth approximately $549 million at the prevailing market price) had vanished, touting a “weaknesses in the system,” with bankruptcy filings claiming a debt of $63.6 million. It remains to be seen just how many Bitcoins remain in the vault, and will account holders actually be on the receiving end of their mined currency eventually?

Edwin Kee
Categories: Computers
Tags: bitcoin