Day: January 9, 2018

A suspect in a case involving hacking, blackmailing and Bitcoin has been arrested in Hong Kong. A 30-year-old computer technician has been taken in custody in connection with cyberattacks against two travel agencies. The man risks years of imprisonment. Personal data of customers was held for ransom. Tour operators were asked to pay 1 Bitcoin for its release.

Also read: Russian Crypto Expert Released After Allegedly Being Kidnapped

Send the Bitcoin if You Want It Back

Names, identity card numbers, passport details and phone numbers of 20,000 clients were part of the sensitive information. The companies, Big Line Holiday and Goldjoy Holidays, reported the hacking of their computers on January 1 and 2. They told police they had received emails from the unknown culprit who demanded 1 Bitcoin (about $15,000) to be paid as ransom.

Officers from Hong Kong’s Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau (CSTCB) raided an apartment on Cheung Chau Island and arrested the man, South China Morning Post reported. During the operation, police seized two desktop computers, two laptops, a tablet, three hard disks and five mobile phones. They also escorted the suspect to his workplace in Kowloon on Monday to gather more evidence. He has been described by local media as an “IT worker”, a “computer technician”. The man was handcuffed on Saturday night, January 6, at his home in Cheung Chau, The Standard reported.

The agencies were hacked on New Year’s Day when the attacker supposedly took advantage of weakened security of their websites. The companies received an email shortly after and were told to send the Bitcoin to a newly opened address. The author of the blackmail letter threatened that if they failed to pay the ransom the personal data of their customers would be posted on the internet Saturday, a police source told SCMP. After checking thousands of logs on the servers, the Cyber Security Bureau agents managed to identify the attacker’s IP address and trace it back to the suspect.

No Bitcoin, No Ransom, No Problem

No sensitive information has been lost, as it was actually locked, not stolen. Police moved to apprehend the hacker hours before the ransom deadline. No charges have been levied against the suspect yet, as investigators are still questioning him and gathering information from forensic examination of hardware and software. Law enforcement officials have not ruled out further arrests as part of the ongoing investigation. The CSTCB superintendent Swalikh Mohammed described blackmail as a serious offence, punishable by up to 14 years in prison. He also warned:

The cyber world is not a lawless place. Laws applicable to the real world can also be applied to the internet

Both travel agencies have since apologized to their customers for the hacking incidents and pledged measures to improve cybersecurity. A Goldjoy representative said the company was pleased that a suspect had been apprehended so quickly. He insisted that it was highly unlikely its data storage would be hacked again after the new security upgrades. Big Line announced that it had taken immediate countermeasures after the breach. Almost $1.3 million of funding for cybersecurity improvements is available for small to medium sized businesses in the travel industry, government officials reminded.

Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog expressed concerns about the incident involving the possible theft of sensitive information. “Travel agents, as data users, should take all reasonable security measures to protect customers’ personal data,” Privacy Commissioner Stephen Wong Kai-yi said, noting a “rising trend”.

The latest incidents are really a second episode in the “Blackmail for Bitcoin” series. Back in November, one of the largest tour operators in the city – Worldwide Package Travel Service, announced its customer database had been hacked. Personal information, including credit card numbers, of some 200,000 people had been locked by the hackers. WWPKG was asked by the unknown blackmailers to pay a seven-figure ransom, again in Bitcoin. The company called the police and their experts managed to decrypt the data but no arrests were made.

No loss of financial information has been reported in either of these cases. According to data quoted by the local press, Hong Kong’s Cyber Security Bureau has recorded close to 6,000 cases of cybercrimes in 2016 alone. Financial losses, since the agency was established in 2005, have been estimated at almost $295 million.

Do you think the rise of cryptocurrencies is related to the reported increase of cybercrimes? Tell us in the comments section below.

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Discover 20 reading experiences that won’t leave you half-hearted. For crypto gurus, fintech fans and for all enthusiasts about the innovations. #NEW YEAR SPECIAL

A long-standing proposal to bring “smarter” smart contracts to bitcoin’s main net has just taken one step closer to implementation.

We have seen quite a few cryptocurrencies being created to fill specific needs. In some cases, these “niche coins” can be quite successful in the long run. Dogecoin is a perfect example of how success can be achieved sooner or later. Whether or not Otaku Coin will see similar success remains to be determined. The decision to issue this token through an ICO will always be controversial, but the currency seems to be targeting an interesting market.

Tokyo Otaku Mode’s Latest Creation

In most cases, new ERC20 tokens are created by teams of people who want to raise a lot of money. This money will then be used to fund the development of their projects, which may or may not come to market in the end. There are plenty of risks associated with such tokens, especially since they aren’t always created by reputable individuals. Otaku Coin is different in this regard, as it is a project designed by Tokyo Otaku Mode. The company has over 20 million fans worldwide, which gives this project a bit more allure from day one.

The goal of this new ERC20 token is to be used within the Japanese content industry in the area of anime. Most anime enthusiasts will know the term otaku by now, and thus it makes sense to create a dedicated currency for this specific market. The new cryptocurrency will be distributed through an initial coin offering, which is set to take place at some point this summer. Targeting this specific industry will not be easy, although the concept opens up a lot of new opportunities.

Otaku Coin will primarily be used to connect fans of the anime industry with creators and relevant organizations. It may even become the default currency for Japanese pop culture, although that goal may be a bit too ambitious. It is certainly true that a lot of people all over the world have fallen in love with anime, manga, and Japanese games. There is a huge market waiting to be tapped, and cryptocurrency could make a big impact in this regard.

Considering that this venture is backed by Tokyo Otaku Mode and its advisers, it will be interesting to see how things play out. This particular company is quite popular on social media, and its Tokyo Otaku Mode Shop is a very popular destination. Its focus is on news and products associated with Japanese pop culture. Moreover, it delivers original merchandise to over 130 countries worldwide. In a perfect future, Otaku Coin will be used to directly support anime production.

The goal is to let people earn Otaku Coins by doing the things they already like. This includes watching anime, sharing content, and reviewing said content. Once a user gets their hands on some coins, they can then spend them on shopping, events, supporting content producers and merchandise manufacturers, and supporting creators directly. It makes a lot of sense on paper, but pulling off something like this may be a bit more difficult than originally assumed.

It is evident this project is not just another money grab, in contrast to some other ICO projects we’ve seen in recent months. While the objective of Otaku Coin may sound simple, there will be plenty of challenges to be tackled before it can become a reality. Otaku Coin certainly sounds like something a lot of people will show an interest in moving forward. Anyone who has any love for anime, manga or Japanese pop culture may want to pay attention to this project in the coming months. Always do your own research, though.

Over the past decade, e-commerce sales have soared. Many people are claiming that e-commerce will be the end of retail stores.

However, recent figures have shown that the reality is actually very different from what we were expecting.

Will E-commerce Really Replace Retail?

There is no doubt that e-commerce has transformed the way we shop – especially with the recent rise of buy online, pick up in-store trend that was recently introduced by Amazon.

Of course, everyone has heard of the e-commerce giants like Amazon and eBay. But how many other e-commerce-only stores can you name off the top of your head? The likely answer is: not that many. Actually, all but one of the top 10 US retailers are physical stores.

In fact, despite the many stories of retail stores being forced to shut down and liquidate, there have actually been a number of cases when it’s gone the other way around. This can be seen as recently as this year when Walmart bought up several of its online competitors.

Why is Retail Still So Popular?

But shopping online is so much easier. It’s fast, it’s convenient, and we don’t even have to get off the sofa…right?

 The truth is, despite what we tell ourselves, the world loves to shop. It satisfies some of our most primitive hunter-gatherer instincts and has cemented itself as one of our everyday habits.

Despite the rapid rise in technology over the past decade, there is still something inherently satisfying about walking into a store and picking up a physical product.

Often, we don’t just shop because we want to buy things. For many, it is a fun social experience, a way to relax and unwind, or simply an enjoyable way to pass time.

Combining E-commerce and Retail Shopping

Retail shopping is here to stay for the foreseeable future. However, mobile technology has undoubtedly changed our shopping habits irreversibly.

There has been a recent influx of retail apps over the past few years. The 7-Eleven app, for example, sends coupons to your phone that you can redeem in store.

It also has a member barcode that allows users to earn free drinks, a store locator, a feedback system, and a ‘7Rewards’ feature that gives users points for every dollar they spend in store to encourage users to download it.

The Starbucks app has also been a huge success. It allows users to pay and collect loyalty points without the hassle of an additional physical card.

The app was released back in Spring 2009. By October 2013, more than 11% of Starbucks’ sales volume came through its mobile wallet.

But what if there was a way to combine the convenience of e-commerce with the thrill of shopping in a retail store?

Shping is one new blockchain startup working on bringing ecommerce together with retail. It is designed to make retail shopping smarter – and it even directly rewards its users for their engagement in the process.

The way the platform works is simple. Users simply scan any product barcode using the app. From this, they can learn what is in it, where it is from, and whether or not it is certified. They will even have access to reviews from other users, which they can use to make a decision about whether or not to purchase the product.

Essentially, it provides the fun of retail shopping, while still allowing users to make a fully informed decision in the same way as they would when shopping online.

In return for scanning barcodes, uploading product photos, and writing their own reviews for products they have purchased, users can also earn Shping coins.

Large media giants like Facebook are currently making billions every year as a result of advertising to their 2 billion-strong user-base.

However, decentralized blockchain platforms will enable brands to channel their budgets to reward customers for their engagement, instead of funneling billions into faceless, third-party media companies.

Changing Advertising As We Know It

The process of combining e-commerce with retail could completely transform the advertising landscape as we have come to understand it.

Instead of companies having no other option than to shove advertisements in our face while we’re watching cat videos on YouTube or trying to chat to our friends on Facebook, they will be given the unique opportunity to connect to us right at the moment it is most appropriate – when we’re inside the store, ready to buy their product.

These unique features provided to us by the decentralization of advertising will undoubtedly allow brands to connect with their customers like never before.

Rewarding customers for loyalty will only strengthen the connection between brands and users.

Instead of feeling like a commodity being marketed to and spammed with advertisements for products they don’t want, users will become a valuable part of the process.

The whole landscape of shopping and advertising could be about to shift in front of our eyes.

The post You Thought Retail Was Dying? Think Again… appeared first on NewsBTC.

CoinMarketCap drops S. Korean exchanges, the market — and especially Ripple — drops in response #BRIEF

From left to right: Head of the G-Global Business Portal Denis Tsyro, the Nobel laureate in economics Alvin Roth, the Deputy Chairman of the Eurasian Economic Club of Scientists Hanon Barabaner.

The meeting in Silicon Valley led to the collaboration of the G-Global Business Portal and the Nobel laureate in economics, Professor Alvin Roth. Mikhail Korb, the Secretary-General of the Center Party of Estonia expressed interest in the project.

During the meeting, the parties discussed the development of the Estonian economy in the direction of digitalization and the head of international organization G-Global Business Portal, Denis Tsyro has suggested the ways of its implementation.

The meeting was also attended by the Deputy Chairman of the Eurasian Economic Club of Scientists, Professor Hanon Barabaner, who highly appreciates the prospects of the forthcoming cooperation with Professor Alvin Roth:

“In Estonia, it is planned to develop and implement a state program for modernization and improvement of the efficiency of the economy. For these purposes, it is necessary to find systematic solutions at macro and microeconomic levels. Professor Roth’s comments on the development of the G-Global Business Portal project as a tool for digitalizing the economy and reorganizing enterprises will be of tremendous value for the entire IT community of the country”.

The tool for robotization, innovative technologies and for entering the new markets of the US, China, and other European countries is the G-Global Business Portal, a consulting marketplace that brings together experts from around the world. The G-Global Business Portal is a blockchain-based platform that cooperates with the AngelVest cryptofund and integrates the ChronoBank system into the consulting marketplace. TIME token will be used to manage human resources.

Alvin Roth expressed his opinion on the transition of enterprises to a new level in response to technical changes:

“Businesses have always changed their methods of operation in response to new technologies.Computer-aided markets not only make new businesses possible, they allow businesses to accumulate and process data more efficiently. There is every reason to believe that the changes we have seen in the last decades, as computerized marketplaces have started to become established, will continue and even accelerate in the coming years, and that the changes in the organization and operation of enterprises will be profound“.

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Plenty of cryptocurrency enthusiasts still have high hopes of seeing Bitcoin ETFs gain regulatory approval. If it is up to the SEC, such investment vehicles will not be approved in the near future. At the same time, the New York Stock Exchange is putting a lot of pressure on the regulator to approve so-called leveraged and inverse Bitcoin ETFs. A total of five derivative projects are of great interest to the NYSE right now.

Reverse Bitcoin ETFs are a Thing

It is evident there is no shortage of Bitcoin price speculation and hype right now. Whether or not this means we will see the Bitcoin price go up or down in the future remains to be determined. If Bitcoin exchange-traded funds ever gain regulatory approval from the SEC, things will head in a rather interesting direction. For now, it remains highly unlikely any Bitcoin ETF will ever gain SEC approval unless proper regulation is introduced first.

The New York Stock Exchange is not giving up without a fight, though. In fact, it is hopeful that the SEC will approve five ETFs related to the world’s leading cryptocurrency. These are not the traditional investment vehicles, mind you, but rather leveraged and inverse versions. All of these ETFs are linked to Bitcoin futures, which are now considered “legal” in the US financial system. A Bitcoin futures ETF has a much higher chance of being approved than a classic Bitcoin ETF.

Among the first Bitcoin ETFs to be proposed are the Direxion Daily Bitcoin Bull and Bear Shares. With a maximum leverage of just 2x, there is no real financial risk associated with these filings. However, they could still culminate in major financial losses for traders who bet on the Bitcoin price at the wrong time. Moreover, if such vehicles were to be approved, it would set a rather worrisome precedent for the future of Bitcoin-related ETFs in general.

It is also worth noting that none of these vehicles will track the spot price of Bitcoin dollar for dollar. Rather, the fund will invest in Bitcoin futures contracts rather than Bitcoin itself. It is important to distinguish between the actual Bitcoin price and the futures price, as they will be very different at any given time. A 1% gain in the Bitcoin price is equivalent to gains of between 1.25% and 2% for the Bull Shares. It is a very complicated matter for people who aren’t used to leveraged trading, but the concept also has a certain appeal.

It goes without saying that these Bull and Bear Shares are not intended to be long-term investments whatsoever. They are by far the most speculative Bitcoin-related investment vehicle to date, although it remains doubtful the SEC will approve them. Leveraged Bitcoin ETFs may gain regulatory approval at some point, but it’s evident there are a lot of people who would love nothing more than to gamble on the Bitcoin futures price for a short time span.

Should these ETFs get approved, they will commence trading on the Arcade marketplace. This is a secondary marketplace associated with the New York Stock Exchange. Although not everyone may like the concept of these leveraged ETFs, these further confirm that Bitcoin will not go away anytime soon. Wall Street has shown an increasing appetite for this new form of money, even though speculation remains one of the top priorities for the time being.

U.S. technology firm Kodak has announced that it will launch its own cryptocurrency, with plans to host an initial coin offering (ICO).

Covesting, the Cryptocurrency copy-trading platform, has announced this week that they have partnered with Arbitrage Crypto Trader. Aribtrage CT is a project which focuses on a program they have already designed and tested which allows arbitrage between two exchanges. In the current Crypto-trading environment, there often exists vast differences between prices for the same token on different exchanges. This largely happens because of geographical differences. For instance, Bithumb, the largest exchange in Korea, had ETH selling for over $900, while GDAX, American, priced ETH over $100 lower at $780 just several days ago.

Arbitrage CT’s program allows traders to conveniently place inter-exchange arbitrage trades to take advantage of market variation. The working product has already been tested on several exchanges.

Arbitrage Crypto Trader program is designed to automate this entire process. Once a trader connects his two accounts, on two different exchanges, it will automatically monitor the coins with the highest spread. With a few clicks, the trader can purchase from one exchange, transfer to another exchange, and sell it with ease, speed, and accuracy. Currently bot is in testing mode and you can see daily stats of the product in action at prototypestat.arbitragect.com.

The opportunity for Covesting lies in exclusive rights to use the arbitrage bot on an agreed upon list of crypto-pairs. Covesting will be integrating the Arbitrage CT bot into its system and users will be able to take advantage of price differences between exchanges, apart from subscribing to professional traders. Upon launch, users will be able to profit whenever a coin is selling at two significantly different prices on two different exchanges, using the Covesting platform itself.

Covesting’s own ICO recently completed, raising over $20m. The partnership with Arbitrage CT comes as more good news before their exchange listing on HitBTC on January 20^th.

You can also find Covesting on social media:

Telegram: https://t.me/covesting
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/covesting/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/covesting?lang=en
Medium: https://medium.com/@Covesting

Contact: [email protected]

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