Day: August 30, 2017

Ever since the SwisCoin program was announced, cryptocurrency experts have noticed something was off about the venture. It had all the telltale signs of a cryptocurrency-related pyramid scheme. Although there have been multiple allegations in this regard, no arrests were ever made. That was, until recently, as the Ukrainian national police detained a group of people believed to be connected to SwisCoin. Count this as another victory for the police and legitimate cryptocurrencies in existence today.

SwisCoin Scammers Arrested in Ukraine

Looking back at the original SwisCoin concept, it is not hard to see why people would think this to be an illegitimate business model. Similar to how OneCoin operates, SwisCoin had all the telltale signs of a pyramid scheme waiting to collapse. With its various “investment packages,” it was only a matter of time before the scammers ran off with the money or people stopped contributing funds to this pyramid scheme. It is still unclear which of the two eventually came to be, but we do know the program’s operators have been arrested.

The Ukrainian national police arrested multiple individuals believed to be connected to this scam project. It is unclear how many individuals were arrested, but we do know they all face up to 12 years in prison. All of their assets have been seized, including cash assets, expensive products, various – potentially stolen – payment cards, and a fair amount of actual cryptocurrency as well. It is believed SwisCoin successfully raised US$500,000 from investors, although none of this money was ever put to good use.

Investors were promised that the money would be invested in blockchain infrastructure. Additionally, the money would also supposedly be used as a way to improve the visibility and marketing of this particular currency. Although SwisCoin had an official value for the longest time, there were very few exchanges openly supporting it. Most of the trading occurred within the platform itself, where prices could easily be manipulated by the team.

The scammers used the money for their own personal benefit rather than worry about their promises to investors. This tactic is not uncommon for cryptocurrency-related pyramid schemes, but it shows that people are all too willing to invest in these scams to this very day. The criminals also spread false information about the profits generated by SwisCoin, as it allowed them to improve their visibility in the market and attract more investment.

The police also confiscated a fair amount of weapons at the time of the arrest. This further indicates the alleged SwisCoin operators may have been involved in other illegal activities as well. After all, no one needs a Kalashnikov assault rifle when dealing with cryptocurrency, yet for some reason, these people had several at their disposal. It is a very troublesome scenario, although it remains to be seen what else this investigation can turn up.  The criminal case being built against the individuals may reveal other unpleasantries.

Ever since the SwisCoin team held its ICO back in February, no one has heard from the company. The price of the currency fell from US$7.35 all the way to US$0.003764 and no exchanges are actively supporting the digital currency whatsoever. This is not a surprising state of affairs by any means, since the SwisCoin team never had any honest intentions whatsoever. It’s good to see the Ukrainian police arresting these individuals, assuming they are related to this blatant scam.

Israeli regulators are studying whether to apply the country’s existing securities laws to the initial coin offering (ICO) model.

Viberate is a decentralized music talent marketplace that aims to disrupt the music industry by enabling artists to be paid for their gigs in crypto currency – either with Bitcoin, Ether or their own Vibe token.  The project is launching their token crowdsale on September 5th. As music industry veterans, the team of course wants … Continue reading UMEK TO PLAY A LIVESTREAMED DJ SET, CELEBRATING VIBERATE’S ICO LAUNCH

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AMD’s new graphics card is already sold out, a development that comes as cryptocurrency miners seek the latest GPUs to power their mines.

The healthcare industry stands to gain a lot from efforts in the technology industry. A lot of companies are building smarter applications which can make a big impact in the healthcare industry. One of those apps is currently able to detect whether or not one has pancreatic cancer by analyzing the whites of one’s eyes. This is a major breakthrough, assuming it is accurate enough to do the job correctly.

An App is not a Doctor or a Specialist

Although the concept of smart apps makes a lot of sense to most consumers, they will not be replacing your doctors or specialists anytime soon. In fact, it is believed most current medical apps are virtually useless as they result in false positives more often than not. Every now and then, however, an app comes along which can genuinely improve one’s health in one way or another. One app in particular focuses on analyzing the whites of one’s eyes to determine whether or not the person has pancreatic cancer.

Such an analysis is often made by doctors who examine a person’s eyes in person. This technique is nothing new by any means. However, relying on human analysis can certainly be a problem, as it takes the human eye far more time to do this than this app can. That is quite interesting to note, as most people would not give this part of the analysis a second thought.

Pancreatic cancer has one of the lowest survival rates of all cancers, thus addressing this problem is of the utmost importance. An early diagnosis of the disease can often help extend a person’s life, although being fully cured will always remain difficult. This new app developed by researchers at the University of Washington will help in identifying this threat a lot quicker than any human healthcare specialist would be capable of. It is something one can easily administer themselves.

This application is called BiliScreen and uses a smartphone’s built-in camera to detect levels of bilirubin in the whites of one’s eyes. The information is combined with computer vision algorithms to yield a reliable result. Considering how pancreatic cancer causes bilirubin levels to increase – and yellow one’s eyes – the application should be more than capable of making a correct assessment. By the time a human specialist notices one’s eyes have gotten more yellow, it is often already too late for the patient.

Using this app is both cheaper and easier compared to taking a blood test. A blood test takes days, if not weeks, to yield a result, whereas this app will give an outcome in mere seconds. It is due time we find an effective screening method for pancreatic cancer and this application may be the solution. So far, the app has been found to be around 90% accurate, although the study was limited to just 70 patients. The goal is to make the app slightly more accurate by blocking out light sources, and an update is expected to be released next month.

Although this app has a lot of potential, scientists continue to warn against using apps to gauge one’s health. This particular application is one of the few exceptions about which people should get excited. However, for every proper application with potential, there are at least 99 other applications which serve no real purpose whatsoever. It will be interesting to see if BilIScreen proves useful in this regard, as the preliminary results are pretty solid. However, there is always more work to do.

Cointelegraph has collected the SEC recommendations for ICO investors and compiled a comprehensive list of the most important tips.

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Dmitry Pluschevsky, CEO of GoldMint talks about asset-backed crypto and a machine that can change the way we think of the precious metal.

BTC-e has released a new update about its relaunch plans weeks after it was the target of a US crackdown.

It was only a matter of time until we would see a new clone of the BTCWare malware family. As the name suggests, BTCWare is one of the more popular and profound Bitcoin malware types in existence. The latest family member of this strain is called Nuclear and is apparently distributed through Remote Desktop services. Anyone relying on such a tool to connect to computers remotely may want to take this opportunity to update their login credentials. Right now, any weak password is prone to this attack vector, which means a lot of ransomware infection reports are on the horizon.

Nuclear BTCWare is an Annoying Malware

Few things are almost a guaranteed certainty in life. Death, taxes, and Bitcoin-related ransomware make up the top three right now. Especially now, the latter category can be quite problematic for people worldwide. With so many different types of Bitcoin malware to contend with, computer users must do everything they can to keep their digital information safe from harm. Unfortunately, that is often much easier said than done, and common mistakes need to be avoided at all costs.

One of those mistakes is using weak and easy-to-guess passwords for particular services. Beyond just email accounts or social media platforms, it turns out Remote Desktop application credentials are also subject to this issue. Criminals are always looking for ways to exploit these weaknesses and cause a lot of harm in the long run. In this particular case, they exploit Remote Desktop connections set up with weak login credentials.

This method allows cybercriminals to distribute the Nuclear BTCware variant, a new type of ransomware that can be very difficult to get deleted. The payload itself is distributed and installed through the Remote Desktop protocol, which is problematic. Making matters worse is the fact that there is no decryption method for Nuclear BTCWare right now that does not involve paying a Bitcoin fee. While security researchers are looking for ways to resolve this matter, it may take a lot of time until we see a free decryption solution for Nuclear.

Under the hood, Nuclear offers a few small differences from its brethren. The encryption method is the same as with any BTCWare malware type, but the ransom note itself is slightly different. Payment information can be obtained by emailing the criminals using the included email address, but there is no standard Bitcoin fee to pay right now. Given the vast amounts of money ransomware developers can charge for the decryption key, it is unclear how much people will need to cough up to get their files back.  The average price across all ransomware types seems to be around US$500.

Ransomware will remain a very big threat for the foreseeable future. BTCWare is one of the top ransomware families in circulation, and a new variant is discovered virtually every week. This does not bode well for the future victims of malware. It is not the first time criminals have leveraged lackluster security precautions associated with Remote Desktop connections to distribute malicious payloads. User error often allows criminals to take advantage of such tools.

With no free decryption method available and a seemingly unblockable way of distributing Nuclear BTCWare, we may see an increasing amount of ransomware reports in the near future. Servers used by corporations, institutions, and even universities are particularly vulnerable. Strong passwords should always be enforced by default, rather than allowing users to create their own. Remote desktop connectivity is an emerging trend, but rest assured criminals will attempt to leverage any weakness they can find.

Bitcoin ATMs are a great tool to introduce the population to cryptocurrency. Malta recently received its first cryptocurrency ATM. Unfortunately, it seems things aren’t going as well as originally expected. After just one month, several issues have arisen. One glitch in particular will eat the customer’s cash and not return any bitcoins. This is a … Continue reading First Bitcoin ATM in Malta Doesn’t Dispense BTC to Customers

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Things continue to go from bad to worse for OneCoin. As if the Ponzi Scheme did not get enough attention from law enforcement officials already, regulators in Luxembourg are also actively cracking down on this blatant scam. The company got on the regulators’ radar and they issued a strong warning to not invest in this pyramid scheme. OneCoin is unsupervised in the region and not supported in any official capacity whatsoever.

Luxembourg Regulators do not Like OneCoin

It is only a matter of time until the fraudulent OneCoin investment program comes to an abrupt halt. With so many active investigations by both regulators and law enforcement agencies, a lot of OneCoin officials must be starting to sweat profoundly. If an investigation can confirm a person is linked to this Ponzi scheme and willingly took advantage of it, he or she may face severe jail time in the future. Right now, the CEO of OneCoin should certainly think twice about what his company is doing exactly and whether or not it is all worth the trouble.

Contrary to what many people still believe, Dr. Ruja is no longer the CEO of OneCoin. She stepped down quite some time ago, almost simultaneously with the first official law enforcement investigation related to OneCoin being announced. Fleeing the sinking ship is a smart decision, although she still has a well-documented history with this company. Investigators will gladly take a look at the role she played in defrauding investors over the past few years.

While the recent warning by Luxembourg regulators may fall on deaf ears, for the most part, their warning should not be ignored. The Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier officially issued a warning of how OneCoin is not supervised, regulated, or approved by them in any capacity. This also means anyone in the country investing in this Ponzi scheme and not being able to get their money out will not receive any official help in this regard. They can still file a lawsuit against OneCoin and parent company One Life.

Financial regulators all over the world have issued similar warnings on this notorious pyramid scheme. OneCoin has no clear business plan and the origin of their alleged profits remains obscured at every turn. In fact, it seems more and more likely all of those claims regarding the company not making any money other than from new investors contributing funds are true. Even though an MLM business structure is perfectly legal, the way this company goes about things continues to raise more questions than answers.

Interestingly enough, the OneCoin press team quickly responded to this official warning by mentioning how the CSSF never contracted the Ponzi scheme. They do not see “a reasonable motivation for this warning.” They have a lot of nerve over at OneCoin. One thing they do not have in abundance is legitimate proof of people getting their money out of this MLM scheme other than by purchasing One Life products and services. There is no evidence of their so-called blockchain or non-existent digital currency.

It would be in the best interest of OneCoin to simply shut down and refund all investors. Otherwise, they will keep irking regulators and law enforcement agencies all over the world. Italian authorities already fined them for 2.59 million euros, but the investigation is far from over. Thinks will get very ugly real fast for OneCoin and anyone associated with or invested in this program. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. OneCoin is a perfect example of how such empty promises need to be avoided at all costs.

A UK-based blockchain startup backed by Jaguar Land Rover’s venture arm is moving to build a platform for collecting transport data.

An international shipping Blockchain pilot in conjunction with Copenhagen University aims to protect the industry from ransomware viruses.