Bitcoin Warns Users of Suspected State-Sponsored Hack
Financial Services
Bitcoin recently warned users an upcoming release could be targeted by state-sponsored hackers.
“Bitcoin.org has reason to suspect that the binaries for the upcoming Bitcoin Core release will likely be targeted by state sponsored attackers. As a website, Bitcoin.org does not have the technical resources to guarantee that we can defend ourselves from attackers of this calibre,” says an Aug. 17 Bitcoin.org post.
The site warns users, particular those in the Chinese bitcoin community, should be “extra vigilant” with the binaries for the 0.13.0 Bitcoin Core release. According to the post, users could lose all their coins or their computers could be incorporated into a botnet to attack bitcoin networks
The post didn’t disclose to what evidence or incidents incited the warning, which seemingly came as a surprise to Bitcoin Core developers. Bitcoin Core contributor Eric Lombrozo told The Register, "The maintainer of the Bitcoin.org site (which is unaffiliated with the Bitcoin Core project itself) posted an advisory of an apparent threat he's been informed about—without consulting anyone else.”
The Bitcoin.org post and Lombrozo both suggest verifying cryptographic signatures and hashes before running any Bitcoin Core binaries.