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These Hackers Love Ripple So Much That They Demanded $1 Million in XRP as Ransom

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XRP

The activity of hackers breaching the core networks of institutions and demanding cryptocurrency as payment is not new. Back in early December, hackers demanded 2 Bitcoins (BTC) from a bank in Mecklenburg, North Carolina, in exchange for access to computer files in a ransomware attack. This type of attack usually freezes files on a computer network that can only be unlocked using a code that is held by the creator of the ransomware. Once the cryptocurrency has been sent, the hackers usually provide the key to open the files.

In the most recent case of hackers demanding cryptocurrencies as ransom in Canada, the files were not locked but stolen completely. Two Canadian banks were the victims this time around: the Bank of Montreal and Simplii Financial. These files contained sensitive personal information of more than 90,000 customers of the banks including names, passwords, account numbers, security questions and their corresponding answers, account balances and social insurance numbers. As part of the only demand from the hackers in exchange for the files, was $1 Million in XRP.

This critical information was to be dumped online by the hackers if their demands were not met. The hackers would send their threats via an email and had this to say:

“We warned BMO and Simplii that we would share their customers informations if they don’t cooperate. These … profile will be leaked on fraud forum and fraud community as well as the 90,000 left if we don’t get the payment before May 28 2018 11:59PM.”

Initial investigations concluded that the email might have originated from Russia and the hackers explained proudly, how it was easy to penetrate the security system of both banks. They did this by implementing an algorithm that generated account numbers then posing as customers who had forgotten their passwords. The email explained that:

“They were giving too much permission to half-authenticated account which enabled us to grab all these information. The system was not checking if a password was valid until the security question were input correctly.”

Doing the math using the current XRP value of $0.676 gives the ransom a value of $676,000. A 3 – 4 year experienced software programmer, would earn that in approximately 10 years in the United States. This is if we do not consider taxes imposed by the federal government, state government and local government. These type of hackers want a shortcut to riches rather than doing it the old fashioned honest way.

By the time of the news was being reported, the banks had not paid the ransom and neither had the hackers followed through on their threats to broadcast the customer information. Such a hack can then be used to justify the use of peer-to-peer transactions from personal encrypted cryptocurrency wallets, rather than having your information and cash stored by your local bank. In the case of the personal crypto wallets, the individual has the sole access to his/her own private keys and passwords. No one else can access this information. Unless of course the owner is careless or kidnapped as has happened before.

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Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide, investment advice. Global Coin Report and/or its affiliates, employees, writers, and subcontractors are cryptocurrency investors and from time to time may or may not have holdings in some of the coins or tokens they cover. Please conduct your own thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency and read our full disclaimer.

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Altcoins

XNO Token of Xeno NFT Hub listed on Bithumb Korea Exchange

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Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 25th January, 2021, // ChainWire //

Xeno Holdings Limited (xno.live ), a blockchain solutions company based in Hong Kong, has announced the listing of its ecosystem utility token XNO on the ‘Bithumb Korea’ cryptocurrency exchange on January 21st 2021.

Xeno NFT Hub (market.xno.live ), developed by Xeno Holdings, enables easy minting of digital items into NFTs while also providing a marketplace where anyone can securely trade NFTs.

The Xeno NFT Hub project team includes former members of the technology project Yosemite X based in San Francisco and professionals such as Gabby Dizon who is a games industry expert and NFT space influencer based in Southeast Asia.

NFT(Non-Fungible Token) technology has recently gained huge focus in the blockchain arena and beyond, making waves in the online gaming sector, the art world, and the digital copyrights industry in recent years. The strongest feature of NFTs is that “NFTs are unique digital assets that cannot be replaced or forged”. Unlike fungible tokens such as Bitcoin or Ether, NFTs are not interchangeable for other tokens of the same type but instead each NFT has a unique value and specific information that cannot be replaced. This fact makes NFTs the perfect solution to record and prove ownership of digital and real-world items like works of art, game items, limited-edition collectibles, and more. One of the ways to have a successful…

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Altcoins

Should Crypto Projects Devote Resources to Community Growth and Marketing?

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2020 has been an incredible year for crypto as investors have generated windfall profits and crypto projects have seen their businesses gain the spotlight they’ve been looking for.  While Bitcoin has received most of the attention after major institutional investors announced they were accumulating the increasingly scarce asset, many altcoins have also seen their fair share of glory.  When looking at all the big winners of the past year, the first project that probably comes to mind is Chainlink, having appreciated by more than 550% YTD and now valued at over $4.5 billion.  But, the actual biggest winner of the year is HEX with a YTD return of over 5,000%.

I mention both of the above projects as they have each taken slightly different paths to achieve greatness.  Chainlink has devoted resources toward building a fundamentally sound business with many strategic partnerships while HEX has spent vast sums of money on marketing and promotion.  Both approaches are valid, but one thing is certain, it is absolutely imperative for crypto projects to let the crypto community know what makes them special.  Of course, one of the reasons that makes crypto so valuable is the powerful blockchain technology that most projects are utilizing.

Cryptocurrency vs. Blockchain Technology

It’s important to make a distinction between blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.  Although they are often used interchangeably, they are different.  Blockchain technology and crypto were both created after the 2008 financial crisis, but cryptocurrency…

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Altcoins

XENO starts VIP NFT trading service and collaborates with contemporary artist Hiro Yamagata

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Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 24th December, 2020, // ChainWire //

The XENO NFT Hub (https://xno.live) will provide a crypto-powered digital items and collectables trading platform allowing users to create, buy, and sell NFTs. Additionally it will support auction based listings, governance and voting mechanisms, trade history tracking, user rating and other advanced features.

As a first step towards its fully comprehensive service, XENO NFT Hub launched a recent VIP service to select users and early adopters in December 2020 with plans for a full Public Beta to open in June 2021. 

“NFTs are extremely flexible in their usage, from digital event tickets to artwork, and while NFTs have a very wide spectrum of uses and categories XENO will initially focus its partnership efforts and its own item curation on three primary areas: gaming, sports & entertainment, and collectibles.”, said XENO NFT Hub president Anthony Di Franco.

He also added “This does not mean we will prohibit other types of NFTs from our ecosystem However, it simply means that XENO’s efforts as a company will be targeted into these verticals initially as a cohesive business approach.”

Development and Procurement Lead, Gabby Dizon explained, “Despite our initial focus, we found ourselves with a unique opportunity to host some of the works of Mr. Hiro Yamagata. We are collaborating with Japanese artist Hiro Yamagata to enshrine some of his artwork into NFTs.”

Mr. Yamagata has…

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