1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Researchers hack John McAfee’s ‘unhackable’ Bitfi cryptocurrency wallet

By
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Antivirus pioneer John McAfee’s cryptocurrency wallet has been hacked again by security researchers. McAfee announced a partnership with Bitfi in late July to promote the security of that company’s cryptocurrency wallet. However, it seems that Bitfi was prematurely confident about the security of its digital wallet, as hackers have been able to penetrate the McAfee Bitfi account numerous times. In the latest hack, researchers were able to send signed transactions with the wallet despite Bitfi’s security mechanisms.

After completing the hack, researchers are confident that they have fulfilled the requirements needed to claim the $100,000 bug bounty prize announced by McAfee. “For all you naysayers who claim that ‘nothing is unhackable’ & who don’t believe that my Bitfi wallet is truly the world’s first unhackable device, a $100,000 bounty goes to anyone who can hack it,” McAfee tweeted in July. The bug bounty required hackers to demonstrate that they’re able to modify the device, connect to Bitfi’s servers, and send data from the device.

Recommended Videos

Researchers were able to gain root access to the device two weeks ago, and they have confirmed that the device was still connected to Bitfi’s servers. To fulfill the last requirement, security researcher Andrew Tierney confirmed that he was able to send the device’s private keys and passphrase to a remote server, The Next Web reported.

“We have sent the seed and phrase from the device to another server — it just gets sent using netcat, nothing fancy.” said Tierney. “We believe all [conditions] have been met.”

The latest hack on McAfee’s Bitfi wallet comes within days after 15-year-old Saleem Rashid demonstrated that he was able to crack the wallet to play Doom on the device. In that attempt, even though Rashid was able to hack the wallet, he was not able to access the cryptocurrency that was stored in McAfee’s account. McAfee had downplayed Rashid’s hack in a tweet, noting: “A video played on your Bitfi wallet has nothing to do with the safety of your funds. This is amateur hour, not a hack!” McAffee has not offered any comment about the most recent hack conducted by Tierney.

Since announcing his partnership with Bitfi, McAffee said on August 13 that he is now CEO of Luxcore, a company that works on enterprise blockchain solutions.

If you’re a cryptocurrency investor, be sure to check out our guides to some of the best bitcoin wallets.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Chuong Nguyen
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Silicon Valley-based technology reporter and Giants baseball fan who splits his time between Northern California and Southern…
Best deal ever? Get 80% off PureVPN and an Uber Eats voucher

Everyone should sign up to a virtual private network, so if you're looking for VPN deals, here's one that you wouldn't want to miss -- two years plus three extra months of PureVPN's Max Plan at 80% off for just $4 per month, for a total of $108 for 27 months. That's $16 in savings per month for dependable online protection, and to top it off, you'll be getting an Uber Eats voucher worth up to $30. We're not sure how much time is remaining on this offer though, so if you're interested, you're going to have to sign up for the subscription immediately.

Buy Now

Read more
Razer’s most boring product is also one of its best

Razer isn't exactly known for subtlety. This is the company that released a Bane-like RGB face mask, a headset with haptic feedback, and most recently, a mouse pad that has RGB lighting from corner to corner. The Iskur V2 chair is an exercise in subtlety, however, and a change of pace that pays off for Razer in a big way.

There's nothing special about the Iskur V2 at first glance. It's a gaming chair fit with the usual racer-style back and some green trim to let you know it's a Razer product. But there are no motors promising immersive haptic feedback, and no RGB leaving you tethered to a wall outlet (yes, Razer has done both in a chair before). The Iskur V2 is just a well-designed, comfortable chair, and that's exactly why it's so impressive.
Out of the box

Read more
Best OLED monitor deals: Get an OLED screen from just $450

Up to a couple of years ago, OLED technology only really existed in OLED TVs and very-high-end monitors that cost thousands and thousands of dollars. Luckily, the prices have come down quite substantially, even on the best OLED monitors, especially as the market gets more saturated with options. That means that if you tend to use a monitor for the majority of your content consumption, such as gaming, then you can grab an OLED monitor for a great price and experience amazing visual fidelity and reproduction.

To that end, we've gone out and scoured all the major retailers and brands to find our favorite OLED monitor deals out there and compiled them below. That said, if you haven't quite found what you're looking for, or feel you aren't ready for an OLED monitor, be sure to check out some of these other great monitor deals.
LG UltraGear 27-inch gaming monitor -- $660, was $1,000

Read more