..the "stash" that was stolen was probably stored on a smart phone wallet. It is amazing to hear the stories about people who should know better storing massive amounts of crypto on phone wallets.. I know for a fact that someone tried unsuccessfully to hack me a few years ago stimming from statements made on a defunct troll box in 2013. The statements were pretty mello at the time. The internet is forever.
It's almost always the ego and arrogance that does an otherwise intelligent human being. Here you have a criminal who got caught because he could not keep his mouth shut. Funny world.
Maybe i'm wrong since Im not a huge computer nerd, but love how they call everyone a "hacker". The real hackers create and develop the tools/exploits. Most of these "hackers" just download the program and watch a youtube.
Well, my spelling really goes downhill when I am exhausted. *Never leave any significant crypto on a phone wallet for more than a few minutes. Many phone wallets are scams. Mycelium used to be good. How to protect yourself against a SIM swap attack: https://www.wired.com/story/sim-swap-attack-defend-phone/
This is targeted hacking, when someone knows you have a lot of bitcoin (or own a valuable digital asset, i.e. @John Twitter handle), they'll get your phone number, and use a number of social engineering attacks to the mobile company's call center agents to get to your account (i.e. baby crying in the background, husband John Smith on a plane for business travel, etc.) Once they have swapped the SIM to their own phone, they target the email password reset, and since email is where the password reset for most online accounts are sent to, voila, access to Coinbase or Twitter, etc. I've never been hacked. My phone is prepaid for over 10 years, you can port your number to a Google Voice number, $25 bucks. My cell phone is prepaid with a fake name, good luck to the hacker who finds out what my cell SIM number is trying to SIM swap that fake name (i.e Mike Hunt, or Han Jobs, could be steve jobs long lost cousin, lol), and use Authy (Google Authenticator clone that has cloud backup if you lose your phone) for 2FA even if Google Voice phone number is not susceptible to any of the text-vulnerabilities (i.e. SS7), still don't recommend it. Have a fake email and use VPN for crypto exchanges not tied to your real life. Don't use Facebook, linked in, instagram, all other social media, they are all tools by state actors to gather info from you and the hackers use them, too, when you post you're on vacation on FB, guess what, everyone knows and your auntie is a weak link to your security, she gets hacked, hacker has access to all your family network info, etc. I enjoy Twitter and Reddit, but fake names All the info I just said are made up, only for entertainment purposes, you're welcome.
I have dedicated computers just for crypto stuff. They have never been used for anything else. But it goes beyond crypto, I know someone with a small business that is hacked all the time. I don't know why.