Meet The Two Alleged Bitfinex Hackers: Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan
09 Febrero 2022 - 01:30AM
NEWSBTC
The recovery of the stolen BTC from the 2016 Bitfinex hack was the
news of the day. That story’s protagonists, though, they’re
legends in the making. You can already tell that Ilya Lichtenstein
and Heather Morgan will live forever in meme form. The story is so
unlikely that many people in the Bitcoin community are doubtful
that it happened as reported. Related Reading | Bitcoin
Stolen From Bitfinex Hack Moved For The First Time In Five Years
Could this tech entrepreneur and this writer/ rapper have hacked a
cryptocurrency exchange? Or are they just the money launderers for
a bigger operation? And, did they really save the private keys to
billions in BTC on the cloud? Or were they set up? Is law
enforcement playing tricks on the public or are they the heroes of
the day? Imagine being a hacker (or money launderer) and
keeping the unencrypted private keys to $3.5billion of #Bitcoin in
an online account linked to your name Mind blown 🤯 — Alistair Milne
(@alistairmilne) February 8, 2022 We can’t answer those questions
at the moment. What we can do is explore the Bitfinex hackers’
social media to get a sense of who they are. But first, a summary.
What’s The Bitfinex Hack All About? And, Why Is It Relevant Now?
The “Statement Of Facts” available at the justice.gov website does
a good job setting the stage: “In or around August 2016, a
hacker breached Victim VCE’s security systems and infiltrated its
infrastructure. While inside Victim VCE’s network, the hacker was
able to initiate over 2,000 unauthorized BTC transactions, in which
approximately 119,754 BTC was transferred from Victim VCE’s
wallets4 to an outside wallet (Wallet 1CGA4s5 ). At the time of the
breach, 119,754 BTC was valued at approximately $71 million. Due to
the increase in the value6 of BTC since the breach, the stolen
funds are valued at over $4.5 billion as of February 2022.“ That
money ended up in a Bitcoin address associated with Ilya
Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, but notice that law enforcement
never says they’re the Bitfinex hackers. In fact, the couple has
only been charged with money laundering. But, what’s the story
here? Our sister site Bitcoinist does a good job thickening the
plot: “The suspects were arrested in Manhattan, New York.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco called the arrest, one of the
largest in terms of financial seizure in history. In that sense,
the government official stated that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies
are not a “safe haven” for criminals. The statement contradicts
others made by public officials, such as Senator Elizabeth Warren,
which have emphasized the alleged use of crypto in criminal
activities. Monaco added: “In a futile effort to maintain digital
anonymity, the defendants laundered stolen funds through a
labyrinth of cryptocurrency transactions. Thanks to the meticulous
work of law enforcement, the department once again showed how it
can and will follow the money, no matter what form it takes.”
Imagine sitting on $4,000,000,000 in stolen bitcoin, knowing you're
being hunted by nation states, and deciding that NYC is a smart
place to hole up. — Jameson Lopp (@lopp) February 8, 2022 Who Is
Dutch Ilya Lichtenstein? Reportedly, Ilya Lichtenstein is a tech
entrepreneur and YCombinator alum. In his Twitter, he defines
himself as a “Human angel investor, web3 developer, serial
entrepreneur.” In his most crucial tweet, Dutch criticizes a New
York Magazine article by saying, “Oh god no. So many words about
posering on Twitter, almost nothing about how to secure your keys,
send a transaction or get a Defi loan.” Oh god no. So many words
about posering on Twitter, almost nothing about how to secure your
keys, send a transaction or get a Defi loan. @atsaraharrison Why???
https://t.co/vTU7w7xfsm — Dutch Lichtenstein (@unrealdutch)
November 30, 2021 Does that seem like the Bitfinex hacker to you?
Or, more importantly, does that seem like a person who would store
his private keys in the cloud? We wouldn’t know. However, the
justice.org report says: “On January 31, 2022, law enforcement
gained access to Wallet 1CGA4s by decrypting a file saved to
LICHTENSTEIN’s cloud storage account,8 which had been obtained
pursuant to a search warrant. The file contained a list of 2,000
virtual currency addresses, along with corresponding private keys.9
Blockchain analysis confirmed that almost all10 of those addresses
were directly linked to the hack.” Bitfinex hackers… LOL… yeah sure
pic.twitter.com/rFKwm3Eico — Psychedelic El ₿arto
(@PsychedelicBart) February 8, 2022 In any case, in an article
titled “Rethinking the Ethereum Wallet for Mass Adoption,” in the
“People are terrified of hackers and malware” section, Ilya
Lichtenstein says: Related Reading | All Altcoin Innovations Will
“Ultimately Benefit Bitcoin”: Bitfinex Whale “The biggest threat to
mass adoption is without a doubt, security. It’s still way too hard
to properly secure plain text private keys without making a mistake
along the way. We cannot expect mainstream users to be security
experts in a world where the most common password is still
“123456”. Security needs to be built in to the product by design,
not left up the user.” BTC price chart for 02/09/2022 on Oanda |
Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com Who Is Heather Morgan AKA
Razzlekhan? Reportedly, Heather Morgan is a successful copywriter
who grew her own business without outside investors. On her Twitter
page, she defines herself as a “Serial entrepreneur. SaaS Investor.
Razzlekhan. Surrealist Artist, Rapper & Fashion Designer with
synesthesia. Also Forbes writer.” Her most crucial tweet
says: “Good guiding compass to live by: How much of a POSITIVE
IMPACT does your life have on others, including society &
nature?” Good guiding compass to live by: How much of a POSITIVE
IMPACT does your life have on others, including society &
nature? — Heather R Morgan (rzk.eth) (@HeatherReyhan) January 15,
2022 The reason she’s much more interesting than her husband is her
rap alter ego, Razzlekhan. Her videos are not available on YouTube
anymore, but you can still listen to the songs on Soundcloud. And,
some Twitter users captured clips of the videos before they
disappeared: This is who stole 120k from the bitfinex hack
https://t.co/CixE4XLbzj pic.twitter.com/Qm4dBeDq0I — RSN
(@puttinyadown) February 8, 2022 Below, there’s another track.
Above, there’s a sample of the couple’s Tik Tok content:
pic.twitter.com/LQCNHUiLEf — Warren Buckets 🔺 (@shillingbears)
February 8, 2022 More interesting yet, though, is Morgan’s career
as a Forbes writer. In her article titled “Experts Share Tips To
Protect Your Business From Cybercriminals,” the supposed Bitfinex
hacker says: “Companies that didn’t already have distributed teams
or work from home policies have struggled to transition to going
fully remote amidst the pandemic. Cybercriminals and fraudsters are
taking advantage of this unexpected disruption, leading to a spike
in scams and cybercrime.” Protect your company and clients from
cyber crimes. BitGo's Chief Compliance Officer, Matt Parrella,
discusses strategies with @HeatherReyhan. Experts Share Tips To
Protect Your Business From Cybercriminals via @forbes
https://t.co/MaNzge6vKq — BitGo (@BitGo) June 18, 2020 Wacky music
aside, does that sound like a person who would launder money
through gift cards registered to her real name? We wouldn’t know,
but the justice.org report says: “Records showed that portions of
the $500 gift card were then redeemed through three transactions
for personal items via the Walmart iPhone application. Each of the
three redemptions were conducted online under MORGAN’s name, using
one of MORGAN’s email addresses, and providing MORGAN and
LICHTENSTEIN’s home address for delivery.” What Does The Twitterati
Think About The Alleged Bitfinex Hackers? Bitcoin investor Alistair
Milne questions the couple’s Opsec, “Imagine being a hacker (or
money launderer) and keeping the unencrypted private keys to
$3.5billion of Bitcoin in an online account linked to your name.”
Bitcoin security expert Jameson Lopp questions their choice of
location, “Imagine sitting on $4,000,000,000 in stolen bitcoin,
knowing you’re being hunted by nation states, and deciding that NYC
is a smart place to hole up.” Featured Image: The alleged Bitfinex
hackers from this tweet | Charts by TradingView
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