Hacked, scammed and on your own: navigating cryptocurrency 'wild west'

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currency-crime/hacked-scammed-and-on-your-own-navigating-cryptocurrency-wild-west-idUSKCN1MS0F7

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
Cyber Risk
Reuters.com
October 18, 2018

NEW YORK (Reuters) - When Peggy and Marco Lachmann-Anke learned in January 
that hackers cracked a 40-character password and cleaned out their 
cryptocurrency wallet, they did not go to the police or alert the tokens’ 
issuer, the Berlin-based technology group IOTA.

They bought more coins.

The Cyprus-based German couple, who describe themselves as financial 
educators, figured they had no chance of recovering the coins and it was 
not even clear who might take up their case. Yet they took the roughly 
$14,000 loss in stride - something that comes with the territory when one 
bets on a new, exciting technology in a yet unregulated market.

"We really believe in cryptocurrencies. We have studied this for about a 
year before investing, so we are aware of the risks," Peggy Lachmann-Anke 
said. "There was nothing we could do."

Far from unusual, the episode is emblematic for a market where few rules 
apply and where investors' faith in the blockchain technology goes hand in 
hand with the belief that it also helps criminals cover their tracks so 
well that trying to catch them is a fool's errand.

Patrick Wyman, FBI supervisory special agent at the financial crimes 
section of the agency's anti-money laundering unit acknowledges 
cryptocurrencies pose some unique challenges.

[...]

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