Microsoft’s Dream of Decentralized IDs Enters the Real World

For years, tech companies have touted blockchain technology as a means to develop identity systems that are secure and decentralized. The goal is to build a platform that could store information about official data without holding the actual documents or details themselves. Instead of just storing a scan of your birth certificate, for example, a decentralized ID platform might store a…

Why an Animated Flying Cat With a Pop-Tart Body Sold for Almost $600,000

In the 10 years since Chris Torres created Nyan Cat, an animated flying cat with a Pop-Tart body leaving a rainbow trail, the meme has been viewed and shared across the web hundreds of millions of times. On Thursday, he put a one-of-a-kind version of it up for sale on Foundation, a website for buying and selling digital goods. In the…

Apple Should Create Crypto Exchange and Buy Bitcoin, Says RBC

RBC Capital Markets says Apple should follow in Tesla’s footsteps by getting into cryptocurrencies. Bloomberg reports: The iPhone maker could create a sizable new market for growth if it were to develop its Apple Wallet into a crypto exchange, said analyst Mitch Steves. “The wallet initiative appears to be a clear multi-billion dollar opportunity for the firm (potential for well over…

Tech Coalition Working To Create Digital COVID-19 Vaccination Passport

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Hill: A coalition of health and technology organizations are working to develop a digital COVID-19 vaccination passport to allow businesses, airlines and countries to check if people have received the vaccine. The Vaccination Credential Initiative, announced on Thursday, is formulating technology to confirm vaccinations in the likelihood that some governments will mandate people…

Lost Passwords Lock Millionaires Out of Their Bitcoin Fortunes

Stefan Thomas, a German-born programmer living in San Francisco, has two guesses left to figure out a password that is worth, as of this week, about $220 million. From a report: The password will let him unlock a small hard drive, known as an IronKey, which contains the private keys to a digital wallet that holds 7,002 Bitcoin. While the price…

US Bans WeChat Pay, Alipay and Six More Chinese Payment Apps

The Trump administration says that Chinese payment apps, including WeChat Pay, are a threat to national security. By Executive Order, all US transactions with these apps must cease within 45 days. AppleInsider reports: President Trump has issued an Executive Order banning US transactions with a range of Chinese payment platform apps from February 18, 2021. The order says this “aggressive action”…

Hackers Target Cryptocurrency Users With New ElectroRAT Malware

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: Security firm Intezer Labs said it discovered a covert year-long malware operation where cybercriminals created fake cryptocurrency apps in order to trick users into installing a new strain of malware on their systems, with the obvious end goal of stealing victims’ funds. The campaign was discovered last month in December 2020, but researchers…

Physical Addresses of 270K Ledger Owners Leaked On Hacker Forum

A threat actor has leaked the stolen email and mailing addresses for Ledger cryptocurrency wallet users on a hacker forum for free. BleepingComputer reports: Ledger is a hardware cryptocurrency wallet that is used to store, manage, and sell cryptocurrency. The funds held in these wallets are secured using a 24-word recovery phrase and an optional secret passphrase that only the owner…

Another Cryptocurrency Heist, This Time $2 Million Stolen from Akropolis

$2 million worth of Dai was stolen Thursday from the cryptocurrency borrowing/lending service Akropolis, reports ZDNet — after which the service’s admins paused all transactions. These attacks have been growing in numbers since early February this year, and one of the biggest flash loan attacks took place last month, in October, when hackers stole $24 million worth of cryptocurrency assets from…