Bitfloor, the largest Bitcoin exchange market in the U.S., is temporarily halting trading until further notice after an attack on its system. The hackers walked away with 24,000 Bitcoins — valued at $250,000 based on current trading levels.
If you've ever dabbled in online gaming cash shops, you may be familiar with Bitcoin. Essentially, the service allows netizens to make virtual money transactions without exposing their bank information. This was set up to be a safer alternative to throwing your credit card number all over the Internet.
But ironically enough, this server compromise shows that nothing's safe in the world of online currency transactions. In fact, this isn't the first time Bitcoin has been in the news for stolen currency shenanigans.
Bitfloor founder Roman Shtylman penned a heart-felt forum post to users, explaining that a compromise of this magnitude demands nothing less than halting current transactions immediately and blocking further transactions until this issue can be resolved. He went on to clarify further in his forum thread that all USD bank accounts and records for accounts and trades are secure, as just the keys to the coins themselves were accessed.