After previously falling victim to a DDoS attack in July, Bitcoin.org, one of the earliest Bitcoin (BTC) websites, has once again been hacked by internet scammers and is currently unavailable.
On September 23, Cobra, Bitcoin.org’s anonymous curator, announced that the site had been hacked and that hackers had managed to post a fraud warning on the site.
“It appears that Bitcoin.org has been hacked, with the entire site changed with a hoax offering free Bitcoin. “Do not send money to that address,” tweeted Bitcoin developer Matt Corallo.
Namecheap temporarily suspended the website after receiving a query from Corallo. The Bitcoin.org website “may be down for a few days,” according to Cobra.
Users stated that Bitcoin.org was presenting a standard phony giveaway notice before it went offline, with scammers purportedly collecting around $17,000 to their addresses.
Following the website’s deactivation, Cobra speculated that the hackers took use of a DNS weakness, claiming that Bitcoin.org’s Cloudflare accounts and servers were unaffected.
https://t.co/OsFgRFRRZb hasn’t been hacked, ever. And then we move to Cloudflare, and two months later we get hacked.
Can you explain where you were routing my traffic too? Because my actual server didn’t get any traffic during hack. @Cloudflare @eastdakota.
— Cøbra (@CobraBitcoin) September 23, 2021
The current attempt follows a DDoS hit on Bitcoin.org in early July, which was accompanied by a ransom demand for an undisclosed sum of Bitcoin.
The incident occurred less than a week after a UK court ordered the website to stop hosting the Bitcoin white paper, ruling in favor of self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto and Bitcoin SV (BSV) proponent Craig Wright.
After Satoshi Nakamoto departed the Bitcoin community in late 2011, leaving the code to Bitcoin developers, Bitcoin.org has been the focus of numerous controversy.
The website has changed hands several times since then, with Cobra becoming a co-owner of Bitcoin.org in late 2013.
Roger Ver, the owner of Bitcoin.com and a proponent of Bitcoin Cash (BCH), indicated interest in purchasing the Bitcoin.org website in May 2020.
Some members of the cryptocurrency community have accused Ver of sowing doubt by advocating Bitcoin Cash as the “genuine” Bitcoin.
Will Binns, one of Bitcoin.org’s overseers, reported he had lost access to the site a month later, indicating a possible breach.
Bitcoin.org is a historic crypto website, with its domain name registered in August 2008, several months before Satoshi Nakamoto, the mystery Bitcoin founder, mined the first Bitcoin block in January 2009.
Bitcoin.org is recognized for hosting the Bitcoin Core, the software necessary to connect to the Bitcoin network and run a node, as well as providing an instructional resource regarding the pioneering cryptocurrency.
