News

Silk Road 2 Hacked And 4000 Bitcoins Stolen

It was only a few months ago that Silk Road was taken offline by the FBI and it’s owner tracked down and arrested. The website offered people a place to trade in illegal goods, everything from murder to drugs seemed to be available for purchase and with the use of both the Tor network and cryptocurreny BitCoin to keep things (seemingly) anonymous, it got away with it for quite some time.

Since the site was shut down there has been a few copycat sites, as well as a few lesser sites coming out of the wood work to fill the void that was created. Now it looks even these copycat sites are being hit as Silk Road 2 moderator Defcon has reported in a forum post that the Silk Road 2 site has been hit by hackers.

He claimed that hackers have used a transaction malleability exploit to hack the marketplace, stealing 4474.26 bitcoins, with a total current value of around $2.7 million, effectively emptying the site’s escrow account. This involved using the Silk Road 2 automatic transaction verification system to order from each other, then request a refund for unshipped goods, with six users ordering and claiming from each other and submitting circular refund requests to move funds around, managing to glitch and exploit the system until they had all of Silk Road 2’s money.

Defcon is calling on the hackers to return the bitcoin. “Given the right flavor of influence from our community, we can only hope that he will decide to return the coins with integrity as opposed to hiding like a coward,” the moderator wrote.

The theft has caused the price of BTC to drop by 50 points, and despite the owner asking for his BitCoins back I can’t help but wonder that he’s wasting his time, what is he going to do, call the cops and tell him that all his drug money has been stolen?

Thank you Tech Crunch for providing us with this information.

Image courtesy of Tech Crunch.

Peter Donnell

As a child still in my 30's (but not for long), I spend my day combining my love of music and movies with a life-long passion for gaming, from arcade classics and retro consoles to the latest high-end PC and console games. So it's no wonder I write about tech and test the latest hardware while I enjoy my hobbies!

Disqus Comments Loading...

Recent Posts

Yoshi-P Says He Would Like a Re-Release of Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics

More than twenty years after the launch of Vagrant Story, many are still dreaming of…

14 mins ago

Still Wakes the Deep 

LIVE THE HORROR: An immersive disaster story aboard a stunningly realised North Sea oil rig,…

5 hours ago

PHILIPS 275V8LA – 27 Inch QHD Monitor

The Philips VA LED display uses an advanced multi-domain vertical alignment technology that gives you…

5 hours ago

EPOMAKER Ajazz AK820 Pro 75% Gasket-mounted Mechanical Keyboard 

【TFT Screen: The Interactive Interface】This 75% mechanical keyboard comes equipped with a TFT Screen, serving…

5 hours ago

Funko Fusion

FANDOM FUSION Play as your favorite characters and wield their unique weapons and skills. Team…

5 hours ago

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance Standard Edition

The Definitive Version of Shin Megami Tensei V - Fully evolved with stunning visuals for…

5 hours ago