bitcoins

Here's a lousy way to spend a weekend: searching through the garbage dump for a hard drive containing roughly $7.5 million in bitcoins . That's the lot of poor James Howells, a Newport, England, man who accidentally threw the hard drive away. ... Howells purchased about 7,500 bitcoins back in 2009, when the Internet currency was still in its infancy. Now, each bitcoin is worth an astronomical $1,000 USD, meaning Howells' bitcoin collection is worth about $7.5 million. "Totally Forgot About Bitcoins," Man Says Problem is, Howells -- who works in information technology (IT) -- purchased ... (view more)

A new report suggests that the cybercriminals behind the now infamous CryptoLocker ransomware scam are making huge profits. The main factor driving that revenue: the rapidly rising value of bitcoins . CryptoLocker is a form of Trojan horse known as ... ransomware. After being installed on a system -- usually following the opening of a malicious email -- it takes control of a user's system. Those behind the scam then demand the victim pay up if they want to regain control of their computer. The usual ransom: between $300 and $600 in bitcoins, a relatively new type of Internet-based currency. So, ... (view more)

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has taken control of two bank accounts belonging to a company that exchanged US dollars for the 'Bitcoin' virtual currency. The department claims the accounts had not been properly registered with financial ... regulators. Bitcoin is not issued by any real-world financial institution. Instead, each unit of currency is represented by a unique piece of code generated by an algorithm. Whenever somebody makes a payment using Bitcoins, the details of the transaction are shared using a peer-to-peer network, similar to they way some users share music and video ... (view more)

Bitcoin currency exchange BitFloor is in big trouble after a security blunder resulted in the theft of $250,000. The heist at the BitFloor "exchange" came after operators did the online equivalent of leaving the keys in the door. Bitcoin is a ... virtual currency that isn't controlled by a government and therefore isn't subject to any seizure of funds. With no government backing, Bitcoin has value only so long as enough people agree to use it. Unlike most currencies, Bitcoin exists only online, with no physical currency (like coins or bills). Each Bitcoin exists solely as a unique identification ... (view more)