Written for The Distributed Post — The new kid on the block, for all your blockchain news and information
Ian Balina, or @DiaryofaMadeMan with 142,000 followers, is well known in the cryptosphere as a mega shill for ICO’s, and for being arrogant enough to post his crypto folio publicly, while travelling in developing countries, updating his blog and providing a roadmap for any would be thieves hunting his crypto fortune.
TMI Fiscals
So yesterday when all hell broke loose for Mr Balina and he announced he was hacked. I was not at all surprised. The bloke has pretty much been asking for it forever. I have been known to tell a friend that this guy was most definitely going to end up getting rolled in a ***** ****** kind of way (Really not appropriate for publication) of his own making. And here it was, tweeted out like a man desperate to reclaim his stolen funds. A series of tweets.
~~~ embed:985790965842698240https://twitter.com/DiaryofaMadeMan/status/986297061594329088 twitter metadata:RGlhcnlvZmFNYWRlTWFufHxodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL0RpYXJ5b2ZhTWFkZU1hbi9zdGF0dXMvOTg1NzkwOTY1ODQyNjk4MjQwaHR0cHM6Ly90d2l0dGVyLmNvbS9EaWFyeW9mYU1hZGVNYW4vc3RhdHVzLzk4NjI5NzA2MTU5NDMyOTA4OHw= ~~~
And don’t’ forget to check the comments and mentions for some comedy gold
~~~ embed:984560608153620480 twitter metadata:RGVhbkphbm93c2tpfHxodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL0RlYW5KYW5vd3NraS9zdGF0dXMvOTg0NTYwNjA4MTUzNjIwNDgwfA== ~~~
So Balinas tweets and other comments on the matter indicate he made some serious errors in judgement around the security of his funds. “I’m not worried about the money. I learned my lesson”, he wrote. He goes on to explain how he got hacked: “My college email was listed as a recovery email to my Gmail. I remember getting an email about it being compromised and tried to follow up with my college security to get it resolved, but wasn’t able to get it handled in a fast manner and gave up on it thinking it was just an old email.”
“I kept text versions of my private keys stored in my Evernote as encrypted text files with passwords. I think they hacked my email using my college email, and then hacked my Evernote”, Balina said
But, were these tweets and blog posts orchestrated, or sincere. I was sure he would be hacked or robbed one day, so my first thought was this is genuine. Until I came across some intriguing information.
Users on twitter and reddit were quick to go super sleuth.
A twitter user reported “If you look at the transaction history where his funds was (sic) hacked from, almost all his token was deposited within this week. A hodler like this man suddenly transferring to ether wallet, then being hacked? What a joke”
This reddit post, claiming that Ian had in fact first posted the claims that the hackers had sent his funds to Kucoin before, they had in fact sent them to Kucoin, a tweet that he suspiciously deleted.
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Followed of course by some more comedy gold in the reddit thread.
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Of course, Balina is denying any attempted deception here. And we can’t be certain either way, as the facts in this case are simply not all available to us.
Although not sure I would blame him for trying, given the complicated and harsh nature of the coming tax crackdowns.
So with this mystery beyond my sleuthing capabilities, all that remains is to ponder, how can we prevent this happening to us, unless of course we orchestrate it, in which case I can’t advise you there.
Wallet Security is a major issue in crypto. So let’s take a quick look at some up coming solutions. BQX is on the verge of releasing their universal wallet, controlled by a single key, helping users to keep that key safe, and preventing key overload and loss. EOS are also going to be implementing a hack/loss prevention system whereby you will have a friend with a recovery key, you can then work with them to recover your funds before the hackers are able to remove them from your account. Or for that time you simply forget your own key. Both great solutions, however the EOS solution stands out as the first hack reversible tool available to users!
Whatever safety and security the future holds, please be careful now, your hard earned or not so hard earned profits, could be stolen away by hackers or taxers, educate yourself, and protect yourself.
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