Any regrets, Edward Snowden? "I'd have come forward sooner"

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Summary:The former NSA contractor turned whistleblower said during a Reddit question-and-answer session that the leaks have also improved security and encryption in Silicon Valley.

Edward Snowden answers questions on Reddit (Image: Imgur/Reddit)

Edward Snowden has just one regret.

It's not that he threw Obama's second term in office under the bus by disclosing the vast surveillance by the National Security Agency. Nor did he regret that he condemned himself to the bowels of Russia. (He rightfully pointed out the weather in Moscow has been "warmer than the east coast" this past week, where temperatures have been close to zero.)

It was that he didn't "come forward sooner" with what he knew.

Journalist Glenn Greenwald and filmmaker Laura Poitras, and former NSA contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden answered questions from the Reddit community on Monday in an hour-long "ask me anything."

The question-and-answer session comes hours before the Poitras documentary, "Citizenfour," broadcasts on HBO. The film, which documents the first few days the whistleblower goes on the run in Hong Kong and the immediate aftermath of the leaks, won an Oscar on Sunday for best documentary feature.

Here are select highlights from the event, edited for clarity:

Snowden, months after he was granted political asylum in Russia, asked the country's president Vladimir Putin if his government spies on its citizens. What proof do we have that Putin is being honest?

Snowden: "There's not, and that's part of the problem world-wide. We can't just reform the laws in one country, wipe our hands, and call it a day. We have to ensure that our rights aren't just being protected by letters on a sheet of paper somewhere, or those protections will evaporate the minute our communications get routed across a border. The only way to ensure the human rights of citizens around the world are being respected in the digital realm is to enforce them through systems and standards rather than policies and procedures."

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Any regrets, Edward Snowden? "I'd have come forward sooner"

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Former sailor fights Navy rules on civilian offenses

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WASHINGTON Machinists Mate Fireman Nancy L. Castillo was already in hot water with the Navy when she was busted near Bremerton, Wash., for suspected drunken driving.

What didnt happen next has now brought Castillos case all the way from Washingtons Kitsap County to the nations highest military court.

On Wednesday, in a dispute potentially important to myriad service members, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces will consider whether the Navy can require sailors to self-report civilian criminal charges, despite the Fifth Amendments protection against self-incrimination.

The self-reporting requirement . . . provides a real and appreciable danger of legal detriment, Castillos defense attorney, Navy Lt. Carrie E. Theis, argued in a brief, adding that it is reasonable for a service-member to believe that disclosing would lead to incriminating evidence.

Theis, who declined to comment Tuesday, has some support for her argument, although in the end she may be going against the tide in a court respectful of military discipline.

In a 2009 case also involving an unreported drunken driving charge filed against an East Coast-based Navy enlisted man, a divided U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals concluded a self-reporting requirement covering alcohol arrests violated the Fifth Amendment.

The Navy-Marine Corps court noted that a self-reporting rule demands the revelation, directly or indirectly, of facts relating a service member to an offense. The higher-ranked U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces also struck down the rule concerning alcohol offenses, although not on constitutional grounds.

The appellate court could also on Wednesday try to resolve Castillos case without digging deep into the Fifth Amendment.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, a former governor of Mississippi, issued new regulations in July 2010. Sailors must now report the basic civilian charges, but not all the factual details. For doing so, they receive Navy immunity unless military investigators independently obtain evidence.

Arrest records are not covered by the Fifth Amendment privilege, Marine Corps Capt. Matthew H. Harris wrote in a brief for the Navy, adding that the fact that (Castillo) was arrested and charged, by itself, could never form the basis for prosecution against her.

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Former sailor fights Navy rules on civilian offenses

Kelly Clarkson Dishes on Justin Guarini, Miley Cyrus on 'Watch What Happens Live'

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Kelly Clarkson is hardly shy when it comes to how candid she'll get in an interview. So when she sat down on Thursday night's Watch What Happens Live, with a glass of wine, the "Heartbeat Song" singer was characteristically real.

She and host Andy Cohen shared a few laughs during a game of "Plead the Fifth" on the late-night Bravo talk show. Needless to say, Clarkson didn't use her Fifth Amendment rights during the conversation.

Kelly Clarkson's Response After Online Bullying? 'I'm Awesome!'

Cohen first asked the singer about her 2013 tweet during which she referred to "#pitchystrippers" during that year's VMAs.

"I never said Miley Cyrus. The fact that I tweeted 'pitchy stripper' and people said Miley Cyrus is not my problem," she said. "I'm just saying. I never said Miley Cyrus, my man. Everyone else said Miley Cyrus. I'm not saying who it was."

Kelly Clarkson Q&A: The Pop Superstar on 'Piece By Piece,' Recording While Pregnant & Bringing a Crib on Her Tour Bus

Additionally, Clarkson was open about her past dating fellow season one American Idol contestant Justin Guarini, who first confirmed their past as a couple last year.

"We didn't date during Idol," Clarkson clarified. "We did date. I feel like we weren't dating through the movie [From Justin to Kelly]. We did date a little bit. I think any two people who were thrown together that much... guy, girl, you put 'Timeless,' that song from From Justin to Kelly, you can't fight it!"

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Kelly Clarkson Dishes on Justin Guarini, Miley Cyrus on 'Watch What Happens Live'

The Fourth Amendment Covers DNA Collection

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San Francisco, CA - infoZine - EFF is asking the Supreme Court to hear arguments in Raynor v. State of Maryland, a case that examines whether police should be allowed to collect and analyze "inadvertently shed" DNA without a warrant or consent, such as swabbing cells from a drinking glass or a chair. EFF argues that genetic material contains a vast amount of personal information that should receive the full protection of the Constitution against unreasonable searches and seizures.

"As human beings, we shed hundreds of thousands of skin and hair cells daily, with each cell containing information about who we are, where we come from, and who we will be," EFF Senior Staff Attorney Jennifer Lynch said. "The court must recognize that allowing police the limitless ability to collect and search genetic material will usher in a future where DNA may be collected from any person at any time, entered into and checked against DNA databases, and used to conduct pervasive surveillance."

The sophistication and speed of DNA analysis technology is advancing exponentially as the costs of the technology drop. These advances, EFF argues, raise significant questions for privacy and civil liberties. DNA can reveal sensitive personal health information and can allow police to identify a person's relatives, turning family members into inadvertent "genetic informants" on each other. Some researchers have also postulated that DNA can determine race, sexual orientation, intelligence, and even political predispositions.

"Law enforcement should not be able to amass giant databases of genetic material they find lying around," EFF Senior Staff Attorney Hanni Fakhoury said. "The Supreme Court should review this case and consider it within the context of emerging technologies that could significantly affect the privacy rights of every American."

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The Fourth Amendment Covers DNA Collection

This could be year of the gun in Nevada

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Published February 23, 2015

A flurry of firearm and Second Amendment-related bills introduced in the Nevada legislature have already generated plenty of controversy, according to The Las Vegas Review-Journal.

This could be the year of the gun, as Republicans, who are in the majority in the Legislature for the first time in decades, see a chance to enact Second Amendment measures supported by many of their constituents.

At least nine bills directly relating to firearms have either been introduced or are being drafted. And there are related measures, including a bill that would extend justifiable homicide to carjacking situations, and another that would allow foster parents who are in law enforcement or who have concealed weapons permits to carry loaded firearms.

First there was a dust-up between Senate Democrats and Republicans over a GOP-backed gun measure that includes domestic violence provisions that Democrats said fell short of what is needed.

Then Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, R-Las Vegas, generated some controversy over comments she made in a New York Times story about her bill to allow those with concealed weapons permits to carry their weapons on college campuses.

If these young, hot little girls on campus have a firearm, I wonder how many men will want to assault them, she said.

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This could be year of the gun in Nevada

You have the right to bear arms, not electrical arms, court declares

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Massachusetts' ban on the private possession of stun gunsan "electrical weapon" under the statutedoes not violate the Second Amendment right to bear arms, the state's top court has ruled.

The decisionsays(PDF) that the US Constitution's framers never envisioned the modern stun-gun device, first patented in 1972. The top court said stun guns arenot suitable for military use, and that it did not matter whether state lawmakers have approved the possession of handguns outside the home.

Nevertheless, we note that stun guns deliver a charge of up to 50,000 volts. They are designed to incapacitate a target by causing disabling pain, uncontrolled muscular contractions, and general disruption of the central nervous system.... It is difficult to detect clear signs of use and misuse of stun guns, unlike handguns. Stun guns can deliver repeated or prolonged shocks without leaving marks. ...The Legislature rationally could ban their use in the interest of public health, safety, or welfare. Removing from public access devices that can incapacitate, injure, or kill a person by disrupting the central nervous system with minimal detection is a classic legislative basis supporting rationality. It is immaterial that the Legislature has not banned weapons that are more lethal. Mathematical precision by the Legislature is not constitutionally required.

The court, ruling in the case of a Massachusetts woman caught with stun gun, said the stun gun is a "thoroughly modern invention" not protected by the Second Amendment, although handguns are protected.

Moreover, although modern handguns were not in common use at the time of enactment of the Second Amendment, their basic function has not changed: many are readily adaptable to military use in the same way that their predecessors were used prior to the enactment. A stun gun, by contrast, is a thoroughly modern invention. Even were we to view stun guns through a contemporary lens for purposes of our analysis, there is nothing in the record to suggest that they are readily adaptable to use in the military. Indeed, the record indicates "they are ineffective for . . . hunting or target shooting." Because the stun gun that the defendant possessed is both dangerous per se at common law and unusual, but was not in common use at the time of the enactment of the Second Amendment, we conclude that stun guns fall outside the protection of the Second Amendment.

The decision, the most recent analysis of the Second Amendment by any top court, comes as all types of and manner of weapons are being constructed at home via 3D printing technology. The latest showdown about those weapons surfaced last month, when FedEx refused to ship a box that makes homemade metal semi-automatic rifles.

The Massachusetts case, decided last week, concernedJaime Caetano, who lives in one of five states making it illegal for private citizens to posses stun guns. She appealed her 2013 conviction, on Second Amendment and self-defense grounds, claiming she had a right to the weapon to protect herself from what she said was an abusive father of her children. The penalty for breaching the law carries up to a 2.5-year maximum jail term. She was caught with the device outside a grocery store after allowing the authorities, who were looking for a shoplifter, to search her purse.

The law in question, the court said, forbids the private possession of a"portable device or weapon from which an electrical current, impulse, wave or beam may be directed, which current, impulse, wave or beam is designed to incapacitate temporarily, injure or kill" except by specified public officers or suppliers of such devices, if possession is "necessary to the supply or sale of the device or weapon" to agencies utilizing it.

In2008, the US Supreme Court, in a decision known as Heller(PDF), overturned a District of Columbia statute and ruled that a banon handgun possession in the home violates the Second Amendment, as does its prohibition against rendering any lawful firearm in the home operable for the purpose of immediate self-defense." Now, every state allows people to carry weapons of sorts, some with or without permits.

The Massachusetts top court concluded that the woman could have applied for a permit to carry a concealed weapon, like a handgun instead.

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You have the right to bear arms, not electrical arms, court declares

W.Va. Senate OKs bill to allow concealed carry without permit

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Senators approved a bill Friday that could make West Virginia the sixth state to allow residents to carry a concealed firearm without a permit.

After reading aloud from the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, senators voted 32-2 for a bill (SB347) that allows people 18 and older to tote concealed guns.

The bill eliminates the crime of carrying a concealed weapon in West Virginia, said Sen. Charles Trump, R-Morgan.

The legislation next goes to the House of Delegates.

Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Vermont and Wyoming are the only states that allow residents to carry a hidden gun without a permit.

West Virginia already allows open carry of a handgun without a permit.

West Virginia law enforcement officials have expressed concern about the bill. They said the legislation could put officers more at risk. They also noted that the weapons-permit fees generate funds for sheriffs departments across the state. Last year, the permits raised $3.4 million for the departments.

However, senators who supported the bill kept coming back to the Second Amendment.

This is a United States constitutional right, said Robert Karnes, R-Upshur. The Second Amendment recognizes this inherent right.

Sens. Corey Palumbo, D-Kanawha, and Ron Miller, D-Greenbrier, voted against the bill.

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W.Va. Senate OKs bill to allow concealed carry without permit

High court upholds state ban on stun guns

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The state's highest court has ruled that Massachusetts' ban on the possession of stun guns does not violate the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The Supreme Judicial Court, in a unanimous decision on Monday, upheld the 2011 conviction of Jamie Caetano in Ashland. Police investigating a shoplifting report found a stun gun in the woman's purse.

Caetano told police that she carried the weapon as self-defense against an abusive former boyfriend and argued in her appeal that she had a constitutional right to carry it.

The justices disagreed, saying that a stun gun -- which can administer incapacitating electrical shocks -- is not the type of weapon that is subject to Second Amendment protection.

The court said it was up to the state Legislature to determine whether such weapons should be legal in Massachusetts.

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High court upholds state ban on stun guns

Judge Won't Force Twitter to Reveal Anonymous Trolls

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Who is the anonymous person tweeting that Music Group Macao CEO Uli Behringer engages with prostitutes and evades taxes?

The company which supplies audio equipment including loudspeakers, amplifiers and mixers is no closer to finding out after a federal judge in San Francisco refused to order Twitter to reveal the individual(s) behind @NotUliBehringer and @FakeUli.

In a ruling on Monday, U.S. District Judge Laurel Beeler writes how she is concerned that breaching anonymity "would unduly chill speech and deter other critics from exercising their First Amendment rights."

Yes, anonymous trolls enjoy rights too.

Last April, Music Group Macao was so concerned with them that it filed a defamation lawsuit against "John Does" over tweets that said the company "designs its products to break in 3-6 months" and "encourages domestic violence and misogyny."

After a judge in Washington granted expedited discovery, the decision on whether or not to enforce subpoenas against Twitter landed with Judge Beeler, who got some encouragement by Twitter to make a First Amendment analysis before it blabbed.

She does so with gusto.

"The challenged speech here consists mainly of flatly derogatory statements about Music Group's CEO, and, apparently to a lesser degree, some criticism of the company's products that likely constitutes legitimate commercial criticism," the judge writes.

Unflattering tweets about Music Group's business practices and products are clearly protected by the First Amendment, she adds.

As for tweets that Behringer evades taxes or travels internationally while concealing things inside his body, Beeler says, "The first comment is troubling, the latter merely crass. But they are both onetime comments. Even the tax-evasion remark would likely be read as what it is: one rant among countless others from someone with an obvious grudge against Music Group's CEO. The court does not think that, in the eyes of an ordinary person, this one-time comment would lower the CEO in the community's estimation."

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Judge Won't Force Twitter to Reveal Anonymous Trolls

First amendment protects Target in Rosa Parks lawsuit

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MONTGOMERY CO., AL (WSFA) - A federal judge in Alabama is ruling in favor of the Target Corporation over the selling of products representing one of the Civil Rights movement's greatest icon, Rosa Parks. The ruling has the lawyer representing the case speaking out.

According to the court ruling, Target was shielded by the First Amendment in a lawsuit claiming the retailer violated publicity rights of Rosa Parks by selling nine items in their store between 2009 and 2013. The items were apparently sold without appropriate permission.

Before Rosa Parks died, Gwendolyn Thomas Kennedy,the attorney representing the Parks Institute, vowed to do everything she could to help preserve Parks' legacy. When Target started selling books, DVDs and a plaque bearing the name, likeness and image of the woman who refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus, Kennedy says she couldn't give up either.

We're talking about the 50th anniversary but we're not any further along with regard to protecting her rights, that's hurtful, Kennedy says. "We sued Target because Target just felt like they could use it with reckless disregard, which is amazing because you can't do that to Elvis, you can't do it to Marilyn Monroe so to do it to Rosa Parks is an extra slap in the face particularly because of what she did for us, all of us, Kennedy added.

Making a profit off of the Civil Rights icon doesn't hit a bullseye with Kennedy, she says she is dumbfounded by the court's ruling.

Target is a multi-billion dollar corporation and they're selling on mass in bulk and can afford to pay a royalty, can afford to pay a licensing fee and just won't do it," Kennedy says.

While the Target merchandise is under scrutiny, if you're looking for a Rosa Parks t-shirt or keychains, try the Rosa Parks Museum and Library gift shop on the Troy University, Montgomery campus.Troy University is able to sell Rosa Parks products because essentially they made contact with the Parks Institute, something Kennedy says never happened when it comes to Target.

We're permitted to sell memorabilia with her likeness on it, and again it's from an agreement we reached with them back in the 1990's, said Troy University Montgomery Campus Vice Chancellor Lance Tatum.We have a certain set of standards that we adhere to the merchandise that we buy all have an affiliation back to the Rosa Parks family, and as long as we stay in that framework of understanding then we are permitted to sell that material.

WSFA 12 News reached out to Target Corporate and received a statement from spokesman Evan Lapiska. The email states, We do not have anything to add and defer to the court's ruling."

Kennedy plans to appeal the ruling within the next 30 days, saying that most law is made, throughout history, in the appellate court system.

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First amendment protects Target in Rosa Parks lawsuit

Decision not to release graphic trial video raising First Amendment questions

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A dramatic view inside Marathon Sports was among the new video of the Boston Marathon bombing released as the trial got underway.

Watch Kelley's report

Far more graphic surveillance video from Forum Restaurant, including survivor Marc Fucarile on fire, was also shown in court but not released publicly. The decision to keep some video under wraps has pitted victims' rights against the First Amendment.

Liz Norden could clearly see her sons JP and Paul Norden as she watched the video in court.

"I saw my boys on the ground. You could see it plain as day. Their legs were missing," Norden said. "I saw one of their friends on fire. It was horrible."

Fucarile has never seen the video and tells WCVB's Kelley Tuthill it should stay out of public view so his young son never sees it either. Norden agrees.

"I think the victims should be able to see it and for them to decide," Norden said.

In an email, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney said graphic images have been withheld in "order to protect victims' privacy and dignity and safeguard their emotional and psychological welfare."

"Unfortunately and sadly this time it's not about the victims," said Emily Rooney, the host of WGBH's Beat the Press. The local and network TV veteran calls this overreach by the US Attorney.

"It's one thing to ask us to use it with caution and carefully," Rooney said. "It's another thing to say that you can't have it. It was shown in open court."

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Decision not to release graphic trial video raising First Amendment questions

Tor Users Must Now Provide A Phone Number To Open A New Twitter Account

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Twitter last week announced plans to begin tracking troublesome users via their mobile phone number. Along those lines, it has begunforcing users of anonymous web browser Torto providea number in order to open a new account.

Update:A Twitter representative told TechCrunch that the companyhas notmade specific changes to the registration process for Tor browser users.

Twitter does not block or force Tor users to phone verify in order to sign up. Occasionally, signups and logins may be asked to phone verify as they may exhibit behavior similar to spam. This is applicable to all IPs and not just Tor IPs.

However, we repeated the sign-up process more than a dozen time and each time a phone number was required, while many on Twitter also found the same. The exception, it seems, is for browsers like Mozilla which can runTor. In the latter case, Twitter does not appear to be requiring phone verification. At the least, it seems that more connections via Tor are being flagged as potentially spam accounts and thus require phone verification.

The U.S. company doesnt mandateits users to associate their account with a mobile number thats optional but its new security system will use short-term suspensions to get the digits of serial trolls. The idea here is to find something identifiable that can be used to trace them if they open new accounts, as many serial abuses do.

Those who open a new account via Tor, however, will have their number added to Twitters database right away, following this apparent new change in the sign-up process.

The issue was first flagged on Twitter, and we confirmed itwith our own testing.

I was able to open a new Twitter account using Googles Chrome browser by just providing an email address. The same process done withinTor leftme needing to submit a phone number for SMS verification.

We contacted Twitter for comment, but the company had not responded at the time of writing.

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Tor Users Must Now Provide A Phone Number To Open A New Twitter Account

uTorrent quietly installs a cryptocurrency miner on users' computers

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The popular BitTorrent client uTorrent is facing a backlash after trying to turn a buck through cryptocurrency mining.

On Thursday, users started reporting that uTorrent had silently installed cryptocurrency software from Epic Scale as part of version 3.4.2 build 28913. Once installed, Epic Scale uses some of the computer's spare processing power to generate cryptocurrency (such as Bitcoin or Litecoin).

In response to user complaints, a uTorrent manager confirmed parent company BitTorrent's partnership with Epic Scale, saying the software generates revenue for uTorrent while also contributing some funds to charity. In the future, Epic Scale plans to contribute CPU cycles to other initiatives, such as Genome mapping and other academic studies that require a great deal of processing power.

However, the manager denied that EpicScale was installing without the user's permission, claiming that uTorrent could not reproduce the issue. That's despite complaints from five users on uTorrent's forums who say the software was installed automatically in the latest update.

Update:BitTorrent supplied PCWorld with this comment:

"We have reviewed the issue closely and can confirm there is no silent install happening. It is in fact impossible for partner software to be installed without user permission. We are continuing to look at the issue. But it is almost certain these users accepted the offer during install...

In terms of user complaints in our forums, we always take these claims seriously. We highly value our users, they are a passionate and tech savvy group. In the last 24 hours we have received less than a dozen inquiries out of several million offers. That should put things into perspective."

In any event, users can partially uninstall EpicScale through the Add/Remove Programs menu in Windows. A registry modification will remain in the ProgramData/Epicscale folder, though users can safely delete this folder once the uninstall is complete. That hasn't stopped dozens of outraged users from swearing off uTorrent in favor of alternatives such as qBittorrent, Deluge, and Transmission.

Why this matters: Cryptocurrency mining burns more than just spare system resources. By making the CPU work harder than it normally would, it also consumes more energy, potentially raising users' electricity bills. While it's ironic that users are aghast at an act of leeching from a program that facilitates media piracy, that doesn't let uTorrent off the hook for a lack of transparency. Some quick backtracking seems likely.

Jared writes for PCWorld and TechHive from his remote outpost in Cincinnati. More by Jared Newman

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uTorrent quietly installs a cryptocurrency miner on users' computers

uTorrent Quietly Installs Cryptocurrency Miner

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New submitter Eloking sends news that uTorrent, a popular BitTorrent client, is silently installing cryptocurrency mining software for many users. [uTorrent] brings in revenue through in-app advertising and also presents users with offers to try out third-party software when installed or updated. These offers are usually not placed on users machines without consent, but this week many users began complaining about a rogue offer being silently installed. The complaints mention the Epic Scale tool, a piece of software that generates revenue through cryptocurrency mining. To do so, it uses the host computers CPU cycles. ... The sudden increase in complaints over the past two days suggests that something went wrong with the install and update process. Several users specifically say that they were vigilant, but instead of a popup asking for permission the Epic Scale offer was added silently.

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uTorrent Quietly Installs Cryptocurrency Miner

uTorrent accused of bundling cryptocurrency malware with popular BitTorrent client

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For years, if youve used BitTorrent, youve probably used Torrent to manage and control torrent files. The software is the most popular Torrent client online with an estimated 100 million users, and its valued for its small footprint and rich feature set. Torrent has been including adware for several years (despite warning people in its install against installations that attempt to charge for the program), but it may have crossed a line this time numerous users are reporting that installing the program also silently installs an application called Epic Scale.

Epic Scale is shady looking, to say the least. The company website claims a straight link between installing Epic Scale and benefiting charities literally.

The impression the website gives is that by installing this program, you literally donate compute time to charity. Its like Folding@Home, or SETI, or another equivalent project right?

Well, no. Not exactly. A little farther down the page, the website notes:

How is money earned?

Solving math problems for weather prediction, physics simulations, cryptography (including cryptocurrency mining) and more has real world value. We solve these problems on behalf of our trusted partners, and donate proceeds to your favorite charities.

Heres a hint: The only one of those activities that actually earns any money is cryptocurrency mining, and thats what Epic Scale does.

The program sets itself to Continuously by default

On the one hand, this is actually kind of baffling. Cryptocurrency mining on CPUs went out years ago. Its incredibly unlikely that Epic Scale could generate much in the way of income even with massive amounts of miners, CPU scaling simply isnt good enough. On the other hand, the company has ambitions its CPU-scanning software notes that my system (a Core i7-3960X) has zero AMD and zero Nvidia cards. Thats not true but obviously Epic Scale wants to, erm, scale out.

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uTorrent accused of bundling cryptocurrency malware with popular BitTorrent client

Bitcoin hack report suggests inside job

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According to the report, the bot, known as "Willy", assigned itself dozens of accounts with apparently faked US dollar balances, allowing it to buy and withdraw the virtual currency at will.

The fact that the bot operated in Asian hours is one of several clues suggesting that the creator could have worked at Mt Gox, said Kim Nilsson, chief engineer at WizSec. At its peak, the holding company run by Mt Gox chief Mark Karpels employed some 30 people, some of them on short-term contracts.

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"We think it is more plausible that it was an insider rather than an external hacker," said Mr Nilsson.

The shuttering of the exchange once the world's most popular venue for trading and storing bitcoins left thousands of creditors in limbo, and provided a stern test of faith in the infrastructure supporting the alternative currency movement. In the weeks following the collapse, during which Mr Karpels claimed to have recovered 200,000 of the 850,000 missing coins in an old format wallet, the price of bitcoin dropped about 40 per cent.

Mr Karpels has said he was unaware that any coins were missing until late in February, weeks after users began to report difficulties withdrawing funds.

Read MoreForget currency, bitcoin's tech is the revolution

In an emailed comment, Mr Karpels said that the activity patterns uncovered by the WizSec report indicating regular gaps in trading between 2am and 5am, Japan time could "show the way to new theories", such as two people operating the bot on shifts, or living in different time zones.

Since the collapse a succession of other, smaller bitcoin-related businesses have hit trouble, with problems ranging from Gox-like hacks to physical raids on bitcoin ATMs. On Thursday bitcoin was trading at $237, about 80 per cent off its peak of November 2013.

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Bitcoin hack report suggests inside job

Bitcoin platform claims thousands of victims in Hong Kong

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Leung estimated that more than 3,000 Hong Kong people have invested a total of about HK$3 billion in Bitcoins issued by mycoin.hk.

An investor, surnamed Lau, said a law firm employee persuaded her to buy Bitcoins at mycoin.hk last September. She alleged that the person collected a HK$1.3-million cheque from her to set up an account at mycoin.hk without her consent. No document was signed in the process, she said.

Each of the company's Bitcion has depreciated to less than HK$20 since last December and withdrawal instructions by customers were ignored. The market value of a Bitcoin, as provided by preev.com, was about HK$1,760 on Sunday.

Another 81-year-old investor, surnamed Chan, told media that she had invested HK$3 million in buying Bitcoin on the platform, hoping to make a profit of HK$5 million a year later. But she could only recover HK$1.8 million so far.

Leung said the platform apparently lured investors with rebates and dividends to introduced friends and relatives to buy Bitcoin.

The investors suspected that they were the victims of an illegal pyramid scheme. A group of investors had said that they would report the case to the police this Wednesday. A police spokesperson said they would keep a close eye on the development.

Bitcoin is an online payment system without backing from a central bank or any government. Bitcoins are generated from a computing process called mining. It was first introduced in 2009 and first came to Hong Kong in February last year. As its value is determined by agreements of users, Bitcoin's undulation is severer than normal currencies. Authorities in Hong Kong have long warned that Bitcoin was a product subject to high risk. Hong Kong has no law to regulate virtual currencies like Bitcorn. The once biggest Bitcoin trader, Mt. Gox headquartered in Tokyo, went bust early last year. The value of Bitcoin dropped more than 50 per cent last year.

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Bitcoin platform claims thousands of victims in Hong Kong

A Few Words About Bitcoin… Because Fiat Is Not Just A Car

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With more and more companies around the world accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment, fiat has once again become part of the mainstream conversation, and is not only synonymous with those cute Italian cars. Fiat actually has a strong relation to money, which is why Im writing about this subject. So, why is fiat currency important? There are global discussions on this topic, which are taking place in boardrooms across the globe. Now, its time to move those discussions to your dining room and get your children and grandchildren involved in the conversation.

Start with what fiat currency is. It is actually money that a government, or group of people, decides has value. The money itself has no value; it is what it represents. The word fiat is actually Latin for it shall be. After the government (in most cases) establishes that it will accept this representation of value, it becomes what we call a medium of exchange, which means that people can exchange it for goods and services.

The first use of fiat currency was recorded in China around 1000 A.D. In the United States, fiat currency dates back to the beginnings of North American colonization. During the Civil War, the Federal Government issued United States Notes, a form of paper fiat currency popularly known as greenbacks. Later, in 1944, the Bretton Woods Agreement was created, which fixed the value of 35 U.S. dollars to one troy ounce of gold. In this case, the U.S. government promised to redeem the dollars in gold; however, during what we call the Nixon Shock in 1971, the ability to convert dollars into gold ended.

Why is this important? Because our offspring are experiencing a world full of fiat currency and they may not even realize it frankly, some of us dont even realize it. The biggest phenomenon around fiat currency today: Bitcoin. What is attracting attention around Bitcoin as a fiat currency is that it is NOT controlled by any singular government entity.

Many Millennials think the concept of fiat currency of this kind is a new phenomenon. It is not. A case in point: when I was discussing what I considered a recent phenomenon with my close friend, Dr. Samuel Guillory, he pointed out that Baby Boomers grew up with this. He said, Remember S&H Green Stamps? Of course, I did! Every time we went to the supermarket, we were given S&H Green Stamps. My job was to lick those stamps and put them into the books. Im sure my tongue is still green.

During the 1960s, S&H Green Stamps catalog was the largest publication in the U.S. and the company issued three times as many stamps as the U.S. Postal Service. How many of us where thrilled when we had saved enough to redeem those booklets for an ugly lamp? The lamp is not really the point; as consumers, we felt we were getting something for nothing. This fiat currency offered us that.

At a recent presentation at MoneyShow University in Orlando, Steve Forbes talked about fiat currency. He noted that we readily accept many things as an exchange of value. He also spoke about how a coat check person hands you a chit in exchange for your coat, which you will redeem later. He asked the audience to think of fiat as a measurement. We agree upon measurements like: pounds, time, miles, frequent flier miles, etc. This is a great conversation starter for you to have with your younger children and grandchildren. Allow them to come up with other examples.

Nostalgia makes for wonderful dinner conversation, but this article is not meant to create space for you to reminisce about your childhood. The fact is that many fiat currencies throughout history have failed. The Chinese had flying money, which was aptly named because these original paper banknotes would have a tendency to fly out of your hands. Ultimately, it failed because inflation crept in. Louis XV found that his paper currency became oversupplied, i.e., inflation took over and people demanded real coins that were made of gold and silver. We all know the stories of Germany, post-World War I, when the only way to repay war debt was to run the printing presses. The inflation was so huge that it was cheaper to heat your furnace using Germanys currency than to buy firewood with it. To give you a dramatic example of this, the equivalent of one U.S. dollar would be 12 marks in 1919 and by 1923, that same U.S. dollar was equivalent to 4.2 trillion marks. Recently, the Russian ruble has become just another fiat currency to avoid because of deflation.

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A Few Words About Bitcoin... Because Fiat Is Not Just A Car

It's a match Free Staters and bitcoin

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MANCHESTER - New Hampshire has become one of the hottest states in the nation for bitcoin transactions per capita, thanks in large part to the influence of Free Staters, big fans of the virtual currency who convene here this weekend in their Liberty Forum at the downtown Radisson.

One topic likely to generate some buzz is the effort by bitcoin backers in the Legislature to make New Hampshire the first state to accept bitcoin for payment of state taxes and fees.

A bill filed by newly elected state Rep. Eric Schleien, R-Hudson, would require the state treasurer to develop a plan for the state to accept bitcoin beginning July 1, 2017. The bill (HB552) calls for the state to contract with a third-party vendor that would convert bitcoin payments into cash at no cost to the state.

"Just to be crystal clear, New Hampshire would receive payment in U.S. currency," said Schleien, an avowed Free Stater himself. "The state will never have to touch a bitcoin."

You can't actually touch a bitcoin, anyway. The virtual currency resides only on the Internet, with values that can fluctuate wildly from day to day.

Bitcoin has slowly been growing in popularity since it debuted in 2009. It's based on the notion that if enough people believe in it, and enough merchants accept it, bitcoin can eventually become a form of international currency free of government and central bank authority, thus the appeal to liberty-minded folks like Schleien.

It's also a popular method of payment for suspect transactions on the "dark web" since it is untraceable.

A sophisticated computer program developed by an anonymous programmer ensures that only a fixed number of bitcoins will ever be made available. A handful of skilled experts with access to incredibly powerful and expensive computers can "mine" bitcoins, but that has become more and more difficult as the total available begins to decline.

Most users buy previously "mined" bitcoins with hard cash through online exchanges.

Bitcoin is a very speculative investment. Its value versus the U.S. dollar has fluctuated wildly over the years, reaching as high as $1,000 per coin, and dipping below $100. On Friday, a single bitcoin was trading for $274.

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It's a match Free Staters and bitcoin

MyCoin closes its doors, $387 million in investor funds vanishes

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Summary:Bitcoin exchange MyCoin has vanished -- leaving up to $387 million in investor funds unaccounted for.

Bitcoin exchange MyCoin has closed its doors, potentially leaving up to 3,000 investors out of pocket.

The closure of the Bitcoin exchange was originally reported by the South China Morning Post on Monday. MyCoin, a supposed Hong Kong-based virtual currency trading exchange, has reportedly closed its doors leaving as many as 3,000 local investors with combined losses of HK$3 billion ($387 million).

Bitcoin exchanges are no stranger to closures and controversy. The most famous example is that of Mt. Gox, once one of the dominant Bitcoin exchanges online. Tokyo-based Mt. Gox closed its doors without warning in February last year, filing for bankruptcy and leaving investors approximately $500 million out of pocket. The closure of Mt. Gox was followed by others struck by cyberattack, including Flexcoin, Poloniex and Bitcurex.

See also: Police suspect Mt. Gox Bitcoin theft was an inside job

However, MyCoin's case may be different. Approximately 30 MyCoin clients are filing reports with local police that MyCoin was less of a Bitcoin exchange and more like a pyramid-style Ponzi scheme.

MyCoin customers were promised up to HK$1 million as a return on their money in four months for buying a HK$400,000 Bitcoin contract. The contract, which was meant to produce 90 bitcoins on maturity, also encouraged clients to lure others to the fold with new customer recruitment rewards such as extra profit, prizes and cars.

No customer was given written proof of their investment, and in December, MyCoin changed its trading rules -- forbidding clients from withdrawing their virtual currency unless they recruited other customers.

One MyCoin client, who has lost HK$1.3 million ($168,000) in four Bitcoin contracts, told the publication:

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MyCoin closes its doors, $387 million in investor funds vanishes