zlacker

>>mikeyo+(OP)
The statement of facts is linked to from the press release, and describes generally how the Feds were able to trace the stolen funds (they found a file listing private keys, after gaining access to the suspect's cloud storage) https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1470186/downl...

> The 2017 transfers notwithstanding, the majority of the stolen funds remained in Wallet 1CGA4s from August 2016 until January 31, 2022. On January 31, 2022, law enforcement gained access to Wallet 1CGA4s by decrypting a file saved to LICHTENSTEIN’s cloud storage account, 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.

> ...The connection among the VCE 1 accounts was further confirmed upon reviewing a spreadsheet saved to LICHTENSTEIN’s cloud storage account. The spreadsheet included the log-in information for accounts at various virtual currency exchanges and a notation regarding the status of the accounts

> ...Lichtenstein Email 2 was held at a U.S.-based provider that offered email as well as cloud storage services, among other products. In 2021, agents obtained a copy of the contents of the cloud storage account pursuant to a search warrant. Upon reviewing the contents of the account, agents confirmed that the account was used by LICHTENSTEIN. However, a significant portion of the files were encrypted

>>danso+T4
$4 billion has got to buy an awful lot of compute time, but still, how did they decrypt the file?

>>colinm+h5
A fancy (or even basic) dictionary attack has a very high chance of working.

>>raverb+P5
It doesn't unless you chose something stupid like "correct horse battery staple" or "word + word + number". 7 words chosen from 1000 word dictionary password encrypted AES 256 cannot be cracked with existing technology, 8 words impossible with future tech.

>>paulpa+oo
This depends on the key derivation function used. PBKDF2 or BCrypt with strong enough difficulty factor makes even fairly short passwords difficult to crack. On the other hand, a straight SHA-256 hash method can be broken insanely quick with fairly long passwords.

>>foxyv+PT
>fairly long passwords

how long are we talking?

>>grwgre+8g2
I never really did the math before but I whacked something together real quick in Excel. At $0.30/THash BTC we can come up with some cost expectations for password lengths. Here I will use a 74 possible character password using 26 upper and lower case letters, 10 numbers and 12 symbols. Totally random of course. Using (Possible Chars ^ Password Length) as the number of combinations and guessing we will find our answer at about %50 of our guesses. (See! Super rough)

With SHA-256 it takes about $21 to crack a 6 character password.

$1500 to crack 7 characters.

$108,330 to crack 8 characters.

$7.8 million to crack 9 characters.

$561 million to crack 10 characters.

$40 billion to crack 11 characters.

$3 trillion to crack 12 characters.

$200 trillion to crack 13 characters.

Edit Note: BTC is kinda expensive per hash right now. Usually this would all be cheaper. Past 14 characters it could be 1 cent and still outrun the usual US budget for a couple years.