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Note from the author : This thought was translated from my blog cyberlife.blog.
A thought that has been on my mind for a while:
"What if the Next Biggest Disaster isn't the one you think it is?"
Certainly, our future depends on the actions of our governments and our actions as individuals on the climate; probably one of the biggest issues of our century; but is it really the very next catastrophe that is coming at us 💀 ?
2020 - The case of the 1HQ3Go3ggs8pFnXuHVHRytPCq5fGG8Hbhx wallet
In June/July 2020 we learn that a Bitcoin Wallet from the black market Silk Road (closed in late 2013) was the dream of hackers.
Indeed, on the forums of the DarkNet is exchanged a file that allegedly contains the cryptographic keys, which, if true, the decryption would allow to move these funds.
The address? 1HQ3Go3ggs8pFnXuHVHRytPCq5fGG8Hbhx,
The content? 69370 BTC, or $955 million at this date. (and 4.5 billion dollars on 13/11/2021).
At the beginning of November 2020, the coveted portfolio, which had not moved since 2015, is debited with 2 amounts:
- on 03/11/2020 at 22:31: a first amount of 1 BTC is successfully debited!
- 5 mn later, at 22h36: the total amount of 69369.16628020 BTC is debited!
❕The researchers at CipherTrace indicate that the first transaction would be a test to ensure that the transfer to the address bc1qa5wkgaew2dkv56kfvj49j0av5nml45x9ek9hz6 is possible. Once confirmed, the second transaction takes place!
At this very moment the web is ablaze, has the password been cracked?
The web is panicking, on twitter we wonder if the wallet has been cracked? Web madness! What happened? The crack by bruteforce is considered unlikely and yet ...
On November 5, 2020, we learn that the American justice announces the seizure of the wallet containing the 69370 BTC. Is it a password crack? Nobody (or almost nobody) knows. The American justice talks about the contribution of 'Individual X', but who is he? Is it an individual?
...
2021 - a special year - a year of all records and a crazy year on cryptocurrencies.
In September 2021, China decides to officially ban Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies while at the same time El Salvador becomes the first country to make Bitcoin its official currency.
At the beginning of November, Bitcoin approaches $70,000 USD while it was less than $30,000 USD on 01/01/2021 . Bitcoin and altcoins (alternative crypto-currencies) are attracting more and more people who hope to win fast and big.
2021 - Record of "Zero-Days" attacks, i.e. attacks exploiting vulnerabilities that are totally unknown to the public and to cyber defenders. Hackers are more active than ever, exploiting all possible vulnerabilities, both computer and human.
...
Back to the past... in 2017
The NSA loses control of its most powerful exploit it has developed in at least 3 years: EternalBlue. This exploit is revealed by the hacker group "The Shadow Brokers" on April 14, 2017. It uses a flaw from the SMBv1 protocol allowing access to remote systems. The "WannaCry" ransomware will eventually spread via this exploit, with the Adylkuzz and NotPetya cyberattacks to follow...
EternalBlue, developed in secret by the NSA, will eventually freeze millions of computers, block emails, disrupt real estate sales, water bills, health alerts and many other services...source here
...
❔On 21/01 France announces a "quantum plan" of 1.8 billion euro
D-Wave is a pioneering company in the development of quantum computers (D-Wave prefers to use the term quantum solver). Its first customer? Temporal Defense System Inc (TDS), a cybersecurity company...
Unlike a classical computer, the quantum computer is based on the laws of quantum physics, which deals with the behavior of matter and light at the microscopic level.
At the microscopic level, strange phenomena occur: an object can be in several states as long as it is not measured (quantum superposition) and two objects can influence each other even if they are separated by a large distance (principle of quantum entanglement).
A classical computer works with bits represented by 0 or 1, a quantum computer works with qubits, made of superposition of states between 0 and 1. Therefore instead of exploring one by one each path, the quantum computer to explore all paths at the same time. And thus to calculate much more quickly.
This computing power, seems to be a gigantic progress for finance, industry ... BUT it is not without risk!
Let's imagine that this computer can use the Shor algorithm, which allows to break the RSA type cryptography system, then everything on which today's internet security is based will become totally obsolete! (SSL becomes obsolete, private/public keys will be useless ...)
I repeat, if a quantum computer manages to use Shor's algorithm, nothing on the internet will be secure anymore!
France invests 1,8 billions in quantum over 5 years. where China invests 10 billions dollars for its national quantum laboratory.
...
Let's recap ...
To make things simple:
- EternalBlue was developed in secret by the NSA and exploited for at least 3 years on a large scale before being discovered and stolen by hackers...
- our world is secure because prime numbers are, today, unpredictable. These numbers are used to generate private and public keys.
- Hackers are more active than ever
- The funds of a Bitcoin wallet of more than 69,000 BTC were moved, we don't really know how
Blockchain Wallets are secured by asymmetric functions based on private and public keys - SSL is based on RSA
- All our digital exchanges are based on this type of key
- China bans the use of bitcoin
- ...
Who says that a quantum computer using Shor's algorithm is not already being used without our knowledge?
Who says that BTC and other altcoins disappearing from some user accounts are not attacks perpetrated by wallet password crackers?
Who says that our global digital security is not already tainted?
What if the only way to save our economy and our privacy was to go back to the early 90's, before the Internet?