Monthly Archives: December 2016

Chinese Altcoin Exchange BTC38 Serves 1.5 Million RMB Of Your Loss

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Chinese altcoin exchange BTC38 has reportedly suffered an attack that resulted in a 1.5 million RMB (Appx. $220,000 USD) Sorry For Your Loss.

A post on 8btc.com stated:

“As a result of the server logic problems on 21st Dec, more than 10 million Bitshares, over 10 million NXT and some BTC/LTC were stolen from the exchange’s hot wallet (estimated total loss of 1.5 million RMB). We shut down the server immediately and stayed up all night to fix the problem. We have reviewed our wallet deployment plan and made new adjustments. We will take full responsibility for the total loss of the digital asset (market buyback).” The most important assurance is that all funds are safe in the hands of BTC38.
BTC38 explained the delay to calm down the market:“As we are currently redeploying the wallet, the service for certain coins will be resumed gradually.”

The hack comes on the heels of an attack earlier this year, in which BTC38's API keys were compromised, resulting in the exchange taking a lesson from the Vitalik Buterin playbook and "rolling back" trades. A security review was announced at that time time which apparently did little to prevent the latest breach. The exchange assures users that this time, however, the loss of hot wallet funds would not impact any customer balances.

Praxair Buying Linde, Renaming Self Linde In Industrial Gas Consolidation

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US based Praxair1 is buying German firm Linde in a move that stands to substantially consolidate ownership of world industrial gases production. In a most unfair merger Praxair will be ceding to Linde half of the seats on the merged board, nearly half of the conjoined equity, and taking Linde's name after consummating this marriage. As is traditional in rushed elopements the combined headquarters will be in neither the US nor Germany, but in a third "neutral" Eurozone country.2 The cherry top is an anticipated 25 euros of value created for current Linde shareholders through synergies and a mere 17 United States dollar of synergies for Praxair holders. Praxair CEO Steve Angel however will remain CEO of the new Praxair which calls itself Linde. It's almost as if Monsanto had bought Bayer this time!

Sorry for your loss.

  1. Of who could have predicted pressurized cylinders would heat to failure on hot asphalt fame. (archived)  ↩

  2. Provided there is still a Eurozone by the time regulators get a say. This is a fiat marriage after all.  ↩

US Steel Refocuses In Anticipation Of Great Again

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US Steel this week announced it would be restarting its hot strip mills in Gary, Indiana and Granite City, Illinois at far less than full capacity while further announcing it would be "permanently"1 shuttering its tubular products operations in Lorain, Ohio and Lone Star, Texas. The mixed messages seem to result from an anticipated increase in demand for domestic steel in the US sufficient to start warming up the machinery as a result of Trumpreich trade policies, though the shifting policies are not anticipated to be enough to justify making finished pipe while oil prices continue to sit in the shitter.

  1. For a peculiar definition of "permanently" used in US Steel's contract with the United Steelworkers.  ↩

Coinbase Login Woes Rumored As Price Reported By fiat/Bitcoin Interfaces Moves

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As the price reported by fiat/Bitcoin interfaces has begun a steep climb self described Coinbase users are reporting issues logging into their accounts on the platform. There is a healthy spread of nearly 30 United States dollars per Bitcoin across fiat/Bitcoin interfaces with BTCChina leading the upward movement and reporting ~860 United States dollars per Bitcoin. Sorry for your loss.

Skype For Mac Includes Well Lubricated Back Orifice

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Lending further credence the working theory that USG.MSFT is at best avoided, a backdoor in Skype for Mac OSX was recently revealed by Trustwave SpiderLabs (archived). The hole – an authentication bypass – allows any program identifying itself as "Skype Dashbd Wdgt Plugin" to attach to the Skype Desktop API, making it trivial for the attacker to access notifications and contents of incoming messages, modify messages, create chat sessions, retrieve contacts, and log and record Skype call.

The code for this game of doppleganger is no more complicated than :

  NSDistributedNotificationCenter *defaultCenter =
        [NSDistributedNotificationCenter defaultCenter];
  [defaultCenter postNotificationName:@"SKSkypeAPIAttachRequest"
                 object:(__bridge NSString *) CFSTR("Skype Dashbd Wdgt Plugin")];

Mac OSX Skype users for versions from at least the last 5 years are affected. Users are advised to upgrade to Anything But Microsoft (™).

Ontario Standardized Test Resorts To Graphite Based Security Measures

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The Great Again : North Edition made an entirely expected about-face this week when The Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) announced that the next Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) will eschew their recently implemented online exam in favour of the tried and true paper format (archived). Citing a "cyberattack" during their October 20th online trial as the primary cause of the technological regression, there's no word on when EQAO will meaningfully stand behind their Q in the digital world.

Sorry for your lead.

Swedish Policy Update: "White Power" Causes Islamic Extremism

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According to Sweden's new anti-extremism czar Anna Carlstedt, much of the growing Islamic extremism in their country is driven by "the extreme right-wing white power movement". Sweden lead Europe in the export of aspiring Jihadists reporting to the Middle East for internship training in the practice of Jihad. Per Carlstedt this export is substantially fed by ethnic Swedes dissatisfied by the socialist regime and its policies rather than anything to do with the aspiring Jihadis and their motivations.

US Drug Overdose Mortality Continues To Increase In Latest Figures

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Drug overdose deaths in the United States continue to increase doubling in published figure covering the period from 2010 to 2014. This increased mortality has disproportionately affected poor "working class" whites and contributed to a decreased life expectancy in that demographic. The areas hit hardest by overdose deaths granted Donald Trump his greatest margins of victory which supports the hypothesis that hunger for The Great Again  and not outside influence (archived) led blue collar whites to abandon what was once "their party" though it continues to be supported by their union dues for the sake of Our Democracy.1 Sorry for your loss.

  1. This promotional offer is available only in select markets.  ↩

Missouri State Representative Elect Bruce Franks Robbed At Gunpoint

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Bruce Franks, elected to serve in the Missouri State General Assembly for the district including downtown Saint Louis, was robbed at gunpoint this week. The politician was sitting in his car outside the Schlafly Tap Room when two men opened his car door and relieved Franks of his own gun, his car, and his phones. Earlier this month Governor elect Grietens' wife was robbed while similarly sitting in her car on the other side of the city.

During his campaign Franks initially lost his primary race, but a new primary election was ordered after it was determined in court that operatives of the incumbent Penny Hubbard had engaged in voter fraud by abusing absentee ballots.

Local leaders had discussed in recent weeks raising tax money to build a new soccer stadium, but the Governor elect this week expressed his opposition to the plan. It remains to be seen how many more local leaders need to be robbed while sitting in their cars before the consider addressing the city's crime problem.