A recent update from LeakedSource earlier this week published new information about the hacks that happened at BTC-E and BitcoinTalk in 2014/2015.
The update states that the hackers responsible for the BTC-E breaches in October 2014 stole data belonging to 568,355 users. Included in this data were usernames, registered email addresses, passwords, IP addresses, registration dates, and other general profile and account information.
The BitcoinTalk breaches in May 2015 resulted in hackers obtaining 499,593 user profiles being compromised. Among the data stolen were usernames, passwords, emails, birthdates, secret questions and answers but hackers found the information not enough to hack accounts because of pre implemented security features such as 2FA.
LeakedSourced analyzed the data and found that BTC-E had employed an unknown password hashing mechanism that made I almost impossible to crack. From the data they analyzed, LeakedSource believes that someone very well may have figured out a way to crack the passwords. Many users have reported losses since the hacking took place. Losses were reported even though most passwords related to bitcoin use sha256crypt encryption, making them near impossible to crack.
A LeakedSource spokesperson said the goal behind this was to enforce the importance of using strong passwords for all user accounts online. It also advises to regularly change your login details of online bitcoin wallets and exchange accounts. This makes sure that your passwords are always safe, and harder to crack. Even if they are cracked, changing the compromised password is often enough to re-secure your account. There are random password generators to create stronger passwords. The best, safest places you can store bitcoins are in a Bitcoin Core wallet, or a safely stashed away paper wallet.
Bitcoin Exchange breaches are becoming more and more common. More times than not, they are reported right away, but it’s not until years later possibly, that the discovery of new details emerges.
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