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Virtual currency Bitcoin’s most popular exchange, Tokyo-based Mt.Gox was hacked Thursday, resulting in a massive buying frenzy.
20 percent was knocked off its price overnight Thursday as a result of the hacking. That, however, is just a drop in the bucket of the 360 percent rise in Bitcoin’s price over the past month.
Bitcoin’s price had fallen to $132 Thursday following Wednesday’s record $147. At once point there was a drop all the way down to $115 during the early morning hours of Thursday.
"Attackers wait until the price of bitcoins reaches a certain value, sell, destabilize the exchange, wait for everybody to panic-sell their bitcoins, wait for the price to drop to a certain amount, then stop the attack and start buying as much as they can. Repeat this two or three times like we saw over the past few days and they profit," Mt.Gox said.
"There is pretty much nothing that can be done. Large companies are frequently victims of these kinds of attacks. Even though we are using one of the best companies to help us fight against these DDoS attacks, we are still being affected."
In recent days, Wells Fargo has also come under a series of DoS attacks.
The online gambling industry is slowly beginning to embrace the Bitcoin currency, though only a few niche companies and one mainstream online poker room have adapted it.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
