Tag: cryptocurrency

Technology

Bitcoin miners are devouring energy at a record pace during the cryptocurrency runup

After recovering from a near-death experience during the most recent crypto winter, Bitcoin miners are back in survival mode — spending billions of dollars on equipment and drawing energy at a record pace ahead of an update in the digital currency's code that threatens revenue streams. The surge in activity is sparked by a runup in the world's largest cryptocurrency, fueled by newly launched spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, and a quadrennial event called the halving that is slated to take place in April. Bitcoin has surged more than fourfold since plunging by 64% in 2022 amid a series of crypto industry bankruptcies and scandals.  Also read: Mark Zuckerberg criticises Apple Vision Pro again, says Meta Quest 3 is better Since February 2023, 13 of the top mining companies have placed ...
Technology

Cryptocurrency Investments: Pig-Butchering Scams Net More Than $75 Billion, Study Finds

Pig-butchering scammers have likely stolen more than $75 billion from victims around the world, far more than previously estimated, according to a new study.John Griffin, a finance professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and graduate student Kevin Mei gathered crypto addresses from more than 4,000 victims of the fraud, which has exploded in popularity since the pandemic. With blockchain tracing tools, they tracked the flow of funds from victims to scammers, who are largely based in Southeast Asia.  Over four years, from January 2020 to February 2024, the criminal networks moved more than $75 billion to crypto exchanges, said Griffin, who has written about fraud in financial markets. Some of the total could represent proceeds from other criminal activities, he said. “These are l...
Technology

Lockbit cybercrime gang faces global takedown with indictments and arrests

An international law enforcement operation led by Britain's National Crime Agency and the FBI has arrested and indicted members of the Lockbit ransomware gang, in an unprecedented police operation that has struck one of the world's most notorious cybercrime gangs.The United States has charged two Russian nationals with deploying Lockbit ransomware against companies and groups around the world. Police in Poland and Ukraine made two arrests. The NCA, U.S. Department of Justice, FBI and Europol gathered in London to announce the disruption of the gang, which has targeted over 2,000 victims worldwide, received more than $120 million in ransom payments and demanded hundreds of millions of dollars, the DOJ said. Britain's National Crime Agency Cyber Division, with the U.S. Department of Just...
Technology

What is credential stuffing and how can I protect myself? A cybersecurity researcher explains

Cyber-skulduggery is becoming the bane of modern life. Australia's prime minister has called it a “scourge”, and he is correct. In 2022–23, nearly 94,000 cyber crimes were reported in Australia, up 23% on the previous year.In the latest high-profile attack, around 15,000 customers of alcohol retailer Dan Murphy, Mexican restaurant chain Guzman y Gomez, Event Cinemas, and home shopping network TVSN had their login credentials and credit card details used fraudulently to buy goods and services in what is known as a “credential stuffing” attack. So what is credential stuffing – and how can you reduce the risk of it happening to you? Re-using the same login detailsCredential stuffing is a type of cyber attack where hackers use stolen usernames and passwords to gain unauthorised access to o...
Technology

OpenAI team to focus on democratic processes for artificial intelligence software

Artificial intelligence lab OpenAI is forming a new team to create democratic processes to shape how its AI software should be governed to address bias and other factors, the Microsoft-backed company said in a blog post on Tuesday.The "Collective Alignment" team is a continuation of the work of a grant program for funding democratic process experiments that was announced in May 2023, the San Francisco-based firm said. The program wrapped up recently. We are now on WhatsApp. Click to join. "As we continue to pursue our mission towards superintelligent models who potentially could be seen as integral parts of our society ... it's important to give people the opportunity to provide input directly," Tyna Eloundou, a research engineer and founding member of OpenAI's new team, told Reuters.T...
Technology

Bitcoin fraud: In online scam, woman loses whopping Rs. 26.88 lakh; know how to stay safe

Bitcoin fraud: Cryptocurrency market is at best a volatile arena and at worst, often, it a fraudsters' paradise that stretches well beyond the segment itself and spans the wider web where fraudsters deploy ingenious methodologies to entrap and fleece users of their money via online scams. Having said that, Bitcoin itself has been doing rather well in recent months, having hit rock bottom and then climbing back up. Bloomberg reports that Bitcoin price rose 3% to break above $45,000 on January 2 and that was the for the first time since April 2022. Yes, the world's biggest and best-known cryptocurrency started 2024 with a bang. Bitcoin rose to touch a 21-month high of $45,386 earlier in the day. Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, was 1% higher at $2,376. U-turns i...
Technology

Cryptocurrency market: Bitcoin price soars above $45,000 for first time since April 2022

Cryptocurrency market: Bitcoin price rose 3% to break above $45,000 on Tuesday for the first time since April 2022 as the world's biggest and best-known cryptocurrency started 2024 with a bang. Bitcoin rose to touch a 21-month high of $45,386 earlier in the day and was last up 2% at $44,980. Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, was 1% higher at $2,376.Bitcoin rally shines spotlight on investor risksA much-anticipated US approval of wider bitcoin trading has helped the world's biggest cryptocurrency reach 20-month heights, risking however pain for new investors unaccustomed to its volatility. Bitcoin this week had reached above $44,000 for the first time since April last year, yet still remains far from a record-peak of almost $69,000 in 2021. The recent surge in B...
Technology

Effective Altruism Has a Sam Altman Problem

 At a New York City dive bar on a recent December night, Pitbull blared from the sound system, and a gathering of like-minded young people had passionate debates about morals and the future of humanity. The local community of effective altruists was holding its “end of year celebration.”It seemed like EAs had little to celebrate. Because for the second time in as many years, a guy named Sam was the subject of an extraordinary tech story and an apparent indictment of the EA philosophy. This time it wasn't crypto criminal Sam Bankman-Fried, but the artificial intelligence industry's superstar, Sam Altman. It's been quite the ride for those calling themselves effective altruists, an embodiment of a philosophy that morphed from doing good, into how to make as much money as possible to give...
Technology

Binance, Kucoin to Huobi, FIU wants MeiTY to block URLs of 9 offshore cryptocurrency platforms

In what may turn into a massive blow for cryptocurrency sector in India, Centre's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), which is under the Finance Ministry, has issued show cause notices to as many as 9 offshore cryptocurrency and virtual digital assets platforms, including Binance and Kucoin. The notifications were issued for non-compliance with anti-money laundering law.Not just the notices, FIU has even taken the next step by writing to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY) to block the URLs of these nine entities that are operating illegally without complying with the provisions of the PML Act in India. Apart from Binance and Kucoin, the other virtual digital assets service providers (VDA SP) who have been issued notice for not registering as reporting entitie...
Technology

As AI makes it worse, fraud is a problem so big we must teach kids how to spot it in schools

Have you or someone you know been a victim of fraud? If so, that's not unusual. The UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported a rise of 25 per cent in the number of fraud offences in 2021 compared to 2020 in the UK. Representing over 40 per cent of all crimes against individuals, fraud is the most common crime in the UK.If these statistics are not alarming enough, there is some evidence that AI is making it harder to detect scams. People often blame fraud victims for being foolish or trusting enough to fall for a scam. But it's time to accept that it can happen to anyone. It's a problem so large we need to revise our concept of fraud as something that only happens to gullible or vulnerable people. The human brain can't keep up with all of the new technology-enabled types of fr...