I don’t think so. As far as I understand BitCoin (and it’s not something I know much about) it’s totally anonymous. I think having those numbers only allows you to make deposits. You need the other part of a key pair to access an account.
You’re right of course, it’s not a hack. I was just repeating how it’s being reported.
The media, and the general public, has so little understanding of all of this that they just call any crime involving computer files a “hack”.
The original pastebin post also says that they got the files off a network share, and when PWC finds out how, people will get fired. That part would be a hack. Then it says that not all of the files were in convenient electronic form, which is ambiguous. Were they electronic but not convenient?
Not really, for a supposedly highly-encrypted secure system it’s not very difficult to access transaction records. Here’s the balance on the Stop account and here’s the Promote account. So far it looks like the most boring race ever.
At this point, it is almost as useful if the tax returns are not released. Obama can continue to punmmel Romney about the tax returns. If they are leaked, Romney can always deny they are authentic. The White House would never give up such a big stick, in favor of a conspiracy with such potential to blow up in their faces.
If Julian Assange wasn’t such a narcissistic chickenshit rapist, maybe we’d have already seen Bain McWorkerfucker’s returns, already, anyway.
I would consider any returns that Romney did not release himself to be highly suspect. There is too much motivation to mislead on both sides.
What’s a Bitcoin worth?
And what dumbasses are making those deposits?
Maybe that’s what this is all about. They’re hoping that stupid Romney opponents and stupid Romney supporters will both flood those accounts with Bitcoins hoping to prevent, or cause, the release.
This feels like a scam to me.
But, as I have said before, Mr. Romney’s campaign is doing itself significant political harm by not releasing the tax returns.
This issue will continue to be harped upon by the Democratic Party and Mr. Obama’s campaign.
It’s hard to know what to make of it and hard to trust the word of someone who says they did something like this. If they’ve contacted both campaigns, the two campaigns are probably both working with the police at this point. [EDIT: I see the ABC article says the Secret Service is already involved.] Even if they didn’t really get Romney’s tax returns this is extortion. So yes, I think these guys bought themselves some jail time regardless. If they aren’t arrested by the 28th we’d still need additional verification on any documents they release.
Bet the people who lifted the tax return are the same ones who forged the birth certificate.
My guess is that the perpetrator is already a holder of a large sum of bitcoins because this event will cause their value to increase (think speculators buying in). IF anyone tried to buy the amount needed, that would also drive up the price.
I’m guessing that they did actually copy data from PWC’s drive (why else point them at the office and how the data was stolen, except so that PWC would verify it?) Now, do they actually have the applications needed to read the data if it’s in a proprietary format? Who knows.
As to the million dollars worth of bitcoins. That will have to be dumped (or at least left to sit until statute of limitations runs out). Everyone on the planet can follow IF it is paid and then where it is paid out to, including if they try to convert it to a currency. So, unless they have a means of converting it to a currency where the government is totally hostile (e.g. Iranian currency), the authorities will swoop in on the exchange and demand to know who is involved in the transactions.
This is sort of a cool extortion idea. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but I bet PWC is not a happy camper right now.
This is an interesting idea. What if they get paid and then leave everything sit until the statute of limitation on the extortion runs out? Think about how frustrating it would be for law enforcement to be sitting there, able to see where the ‘money’ is, but totally unable to recover it.
A million is chump change to many of Romney’s investors (er, supporters) and they can pay the ransom anonymously… if PWC confirms that data was stolen, does anyone think that they would NOT pay the fee?
I’m not sure that it can be followed. My understanding is that it’s used for all kinds of illegal things due to it’s un-traceability.
They might hesitate. What guarantee do they have that it won’t be released even if they do pay?
So, my guess is that it will turn out to be a Chinese perpetrator who hacked into the TN office and did in fact copy data.
I bet, once PWC confirms data was stolen, Romney pays the fee through intermediaries then claims to have no knowledge of who paid and tries to pin the whole thing on Obama.
If (BIG if) this is true, and if Romney determines that they have the returns, I think the best move, from his viewpoint, would be just to release them himself and take whatever heat comes from that unless, of course, there’s something in them that would lead to a prison sentence. If he pays, they might just release it anyway.
Think of each of the addresses provided as “bitcoin wallets”. The ‘un-traceability’ part comes in because you do not have to show ID or provide any information to create the wallet. But transactions into and out of a wallet are available for anyone and everyone to see. Where the traceability comes in is if funds are transfered to a wallet that’s been made publicly known (like farmer Joe advertises his llama wool and posts the wallet online. Now, because of the web site that connect the wallet to a real person/organization, you know who that wallet is associated to.) OR when you convert bitcoins through an exchange, the exchange needs information to comply with regulations regarding the currency that you’re converting the bitcoins into. (e.g. in the US - cash transaction over $10k require specific documentation to prevent money laundering)
Probably some jackass who thinks he’s come up with a clever scheme to sucker somebody out of a million dollars.
It does have the benefit of reminding people that Mittens is still hiding something.
He and his investors are probably nearing a billion dollars invested into his campaign. Do you really think they’re going to do that when he could cry victim and try to pin it on Obama? (Honestly, maybe they’re behind it just to set such a scenario up)