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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 4 declined, 2 accepted (6 total, 33.33% accepted)

Submission + - Bitstamp Bitcoin Exchange Suspended due to "Compromised Wallet" [corrected]

twitnutttt writes: Customers of Bistamp, the successor (until recently) to MtGox as the highest-volume dollar-denominated Bitcoin exchange, and still the preferred source of trading data for many technical analysts, received an email at about 4:00 UTC today warning that, "Today our transaction processing server detected problems with our hot wallet and stopped processing withdrawals." They also instructed users to stop sending any deposits immediately or they may be lost.

Currently, the Bitstamp website has now also suspended all exchange/trading services, and the homepage contains only a maintenance message warning users of a "compromised" wallet. Numerous references to security imply that this is a hacking attack, but Bitstamp reassures that they maintain "more than enough offline reserves to cover the compromised bitcoins."

The full text of both messages are below...

Email:
"Dear customer,
Today our transaction processing server detected problems with our hot wallet and stopped processing withdrawals.
You should STOP SENDING bitcoin deposits to your Bitstamp account IMMEDIATELY as private keys of your deposit address may be lost.
Your bitcoins already deposited with us are stored in a cold wallet and can not be affected.
We will send you more info as soon as possible.
Best regards,
Bitstamp team"

Website maintenance message as of 14:30 UTC:
"Bitstamp Service Temporarily Suspended

We have reason to believe that one of Bitstamp’s operational wallets was compromised on January 4th, 2015.
As a security precaution against compromises Bitstamp only maintains a small fraction of customer bitcoins in online systems. Bitstamp maintains more than enough offline reserves to cover the compromised bitcoins.

IN THE MEANTIME, PLEASE DO NOT MAKE DEPOSITS TO PREVIOUSLY ISSUED BITCOIN DEPOSIT ADDRESSES. THEY CANNOT BE HONORED!

Customer deposits made prior to January 5th, 2015 9:00 UTC are fully covered by Bitstamp’s reserves. Deposits made to newly issued addresses provided after January 5th, 2015 9:00 UTC can be honored.

Bitstamp takes our security and soundness very seriously. In an excess of caution, we are suspending service as we continue to investigate. We will return to service and amend our security measures as appropriate.

Bitstamp Team"

Submission + - The Interview bombs in US, kills in China, threatens N. Korea (bbc.com)

twitnutttt writes: While it has been broadly panned in the U.S. as not very funny, The Interview is surprisingly getting good reviews in China. And the North Korean government's fears of the threat posed by this movie are apparently merited:

It is powerful because it depicts Kim Jong-un as a vain, buffoonish despot, alternating between threats and weeping that he's been misunderstood. The people around him have all the signs of fear you might expect with a despot — they second-guess his likes and dislikes.

Maybe he — and they — were right to fear the film. North Korean defectors sometimes smuggle USB sticks with films and soaps into the closed-off country, and there is a view in the south that these are a particularly powerful means of undermining the regime in Pyongyang. If that's so, The Interview might be a good candidate for inclusion.


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