Hackers became part of a positive process this time. Two hackers cracked the forgotten password of a digital wallet holding a large amount of Bitcoin (BTC), causing a significant stir.
Wallet Rescued by Hackers
According to the information revealed, in 2013, a cryptocurrency investor using the pseudonym “Michael” transferred his BTC to a password-protected wallet to keep them safe. Later, a malfunction prevented Michael from accessing his wallet and the 43.6 BTC, which was worth $5,300 at that time.
Experts known for their cryptography skills told Michael that he could no longer retrieve his crypto assets after losing the password. However, two hackers named Grand and Bruno decided to help him.
How Was Access Gained?
These two individuals spent a long time reverse-engineering the version of the RoboForm password program used in Michael’s digital wallet. They discovered that the seemingly random passwords generated by this device were not actually random but were dependent on the computer’s date and time.
Grand and Bruno agreed that learning the date Michael created the password, the number of characters used, and the placement of lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers, and special characters would make it easier to crack the password.
This process took some time because Michael couldn’t remember when he created the password. The only known fact was that he first transferred his Bitcoin to the wallet on April 14, 2013, and he remembered that the other two passwords he created with RoboForm in 2013 did not contain special characters.
However, by November, Grand and Bruno finally found the correct password. The password indeed did not contain special characters and was activated on May 15, 2013, at 16:10:40 GMT.
Grand says,
We were lucky because our parameters and time range were correct. If any of them were wrong… we would have continued making guesses/shots in the dark. Calculating all possible passwords in advance would have taken much longer.
When Michael regained access to his digital wallet, Bitcoin was valued at $38,000. He was seen waiting for the price to rise to $62,000 before selling some of his assets.
The BTC he currently holds is estimated to be worth over $2 million at a price of $68,300, which translates to 30 BTC.
