2y ago

They Cracked the Code to a Locked USB Drive Worth $235 Million in Bitcoin. Then It Got Weird

www.wired.com They Cracked the Code to a Locked USB Drive Worth $235 Million in Bitcoin. Then It Got Weird

Stefan Thomas lost the password to an encrypted USB drive holding 7,002 bitcoins. One team of hackers believes they can unlock it—if they can get Thomas to let them.

a pretty good article in how they disassembled the tamper-proof device

TechNews @radiation.party

WIRED

They Cracked the Code to a Locked USB Drive Worth $235 Million in Bitcoin. Then It Got Weird

www.wired.com /story/unciphered-ironkey-password-cracking-bitcoin/

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3 comments

Would like to now how it ends, if ever. I imagine that guy can sell his drive, or set up a show out of it. Is there any other reason for him to refuse, like keeping 'this one guy' rep, or just being used to how it is?
- He already "has more than enough money than to know what to do with from their other crypto ventures" (paraphrased). So at this points it's probably in their best interest to leave it there.

I'm curious if the bitcoins are even still readable at this point. My understanding is the charges in the memory cells of a usb stick will gradually dissipate over time, and after more than ten years, much of that information may be lost.
You could periodically plug a standard usb drive to refresh the memory, but will that work with these hardware encrypted drives w/o a password?